


|^|-|g22 



X I M \ 



1919 




THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 

IN THE SOUTH 



BY 
SHELTON PHELPS, PH.D. 



fiEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION 

NUMBER SIX 




^*HvvS«««»«' 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

GEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 

NASHVILLE, TENN. 



j/rou^'^ S''^^^ 



Submitted in partial fulfillment of the 
requirements for the 

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

in the Graduate School of Education of 

George Peabody College for Teachers 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 

IN THE SOUTH 



BY 
SHELTON PHELPS, PH.D. 



GEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION 

NUMBER SIX 







PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 

GEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 

NASHVILLE, TENN. 






ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

In the collection of these materials, much help was given 
by high-school inspectors and professors of secondary edu- 
cation. Without exception, they responded to every re- 
quest, either for data or for interpretation. To acknowl- 
edge singly all the favors rendered would require much 
space. Collectively these favors are acknowledged. If the 
volume contains anything helpful, it is due largely to them. 
Further, much is due to Peabody professors for suggestions 
and criticisms. Especial acknowledgment is due Professor 
J. J. Didcoct for his many helpful suggestions. 



vJaov* 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Administrative Units in Civil Affairs 7 

The Town 8 

The County 8 

The Township 9 

The City 9 

The State 10 

The Unit of School Administration in New England 10 

The Educational Unit of the Middle West and Northwest 12 

The Community an Educational Unit 13 

Where the Township Unit Exists 16 

Conclusions IV 

CHAPTER n. 

THE COUNTY, A UNIT OP EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION, WITH 

ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO SECONDARY SCHOOLS 19 

Prevalence of the County Unit 19 

Alabama County High Schools 21 

Arkansas County High Schools 22 

Florida County High Schools 22 

Georgia County High Schools 22 

Louisiana County High Schools 23 

Maryland County High Schools 23 

Kentucky County High Schools 24 

Mississippi County High Schools 24 

North Carolina County High Schools : 25 

South Carolina County Control 25 

Tennessee County High Schools 25 

Virginia County High Schools 26 

Texas County High Schools 26 

County High Schools in Other States 27 

Summary 28 

CHAPTER III. 

THE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL, ITS MAINTENANCE 29 

Types of County High Schools in the South 29 

Maintenance of Kentucky County High Schools 31 

Maintenance of Mississippi County High Schools 33 

Maintenance of North Carolina Farm Life High Schools 33 

Maintenance of Alabama County High Schools 34 

Maintenance of Florida County High Schools 36 

Maintenance of Louisiana Parish High Schools 36 

Maintenance of Tennessee County High Schools 37 

Maintenance of Georgia County High Schools 38 

Maintenance of South Carolina County High Schools 39 

Maintenance of Virginia County High Schools 39 

Summary of Maintenance 40 

CHAPTER IV. 

DISTRIBUTION OF COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 42 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Kentucky County High 

Schools 43 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of North Carolina County 

High Schools 4S 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Mississippi County High 

Schools 48 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Alabama County High 

Schools 49- 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Louisiana County High 

Schools 50 

Distribution, Administration, and Shipervision of Florida County High 

Schools 52 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Tennessee County High 

Schools 54 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Georgia County High 

Schools 55 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of South Carolina County 

High Schools 5T 



4 Table of Contents. 

Page 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Maryland County High 

Schools 61 

Distribution, Administration, and Supervision of Texas , County High 

Schools , , 63 

Summary of Administration and Supervision 63 

CHAPTER V. 

SOME COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS' ' 66 

Vanceboro Farm-Life High School, North Carolina 69 

Jefferson County High School, Alabama 75 

Hinds County, Mississippi, Agricultural High School 79 

MlUington High School, Shelby County, Tenn 82 

CHAPTER VI. 

PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT OF COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 86 

Physical Equipment Alabama County High Schools 87 

Phjrsical Equipment Mississippi County High Schools 89 

Physical Equipment North Carolina County High Schools 90 

Physical Equipment Kentucky County High Schools 92 

Physical Equipment Florida County High Schools 95 

Physical Equipment Lousiana County High Schools 96 

Physical Equipment Tennessee County High Schools 98 

Physical Equipment in Other States in County High S'chools 99 

Conclusions Regarding Physical Equipment 100 

CHAPTER VII. 

STUDENT POPULATION IN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 102 

Distribution of Students Mississippi County High Schools 103 

Distribution of Students North Carolina County High Schools 105 

Distribution of Students Kentucky County High Schools 106 

Distribution of Students Alabama County High Schools 107 

Distribution of Students Tennessee County High Schools 109 

Distribution of Students Florida County High Schools 110 

Distribution of Students Louisiana Parish High S'chools , . . . Ill 

Conclusions Based on Distribution of Students 113 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TEACHING FORCE IN CERTAIN GROUPS OF COUNTY HIGH 

SCHOOLS 115 

Qualifications of Teachers in Mississippi County High Schools 116 

Qualifications of Teai3hers in North Carolina County High Schools IIT 

Qualifications of Teachers in Alabama County High Schools 118 

Qualifications of Teachers in Kentucky County High Schools 120 

Qualifications of Teachers in Flordia County High S'chools 120 

Qualifications of Louisiana Parish High School Teachers 121 

Qualifications of Georgia County High School Teachers 122 

Qualifications of County High School Teachers in South Carolina, Vir- 
ginia, Texas, and Maryland 123 

Conclusions Concerning Qualifications of Teachers 124 

CHAPTER IX. 

PROGRAMS OF STUDIES 131 

Program of Studies Alabama County High Schools 132 

Program of Studies Mississippi Agricultural High Schools 133 

Program of Studies North Carolina Panns-Life County High Schools 135 

Prograin of Studies Kentucky County High Schools 135 

Program of Studies Florida County High Schools 137 

Program of Studies Tennessee County High Schools 139 

Program of Studies Maryland County High Schools 139 

Program of Studies South Carolina County High Schools 140 

Conclusions Based on Programs of Study 141 

CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUSIONS' BASED ON THE STUDY OF THE COUNTY AS A UNIT OF 

ADMINISTRATION IN SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 144 

Conclusions Relative to Units of Administration 144 

Conclusions Relative to Distribution of County High Schools 146 

Conclusions Relative to Physical Equipinent of County High Schools 146 

Conclusions Relative to Student Population of County High Schools 147 

Conclusions Relative to Teachers of County High Schools 148 

Conclusions Relative to Programs of Study of County High Schools 148 

General Conclusion 150 

Bibliography • 152 



V PREFACE 

This study of the administration of county high schools 
in the South was undertaken primarily with the hope of 
determining, so far as the facts found seem to warrant it, 
a conclusion, founded on something more than a personal 
opinion, as to whether the county, as a unit of secondary 
administration, should be advocated for high schools 
throughout the United States. The increasing prominence 
of the county, as a unit of supervision ; the recognition the 
county has been receiving in recent legislation, as a unit of 
school administration ; and the increase in the number of 
county high schools which have been organized during the 
last decade, were the further reasons for the study being 
made at this time. 

Secondary sources are the bases for the study. Since 
they are in print and are carefully referred to in the disser- 
tation wherever used, it was felt that, owing to the charac- 
ter of this particular study, greater accuracy could be se- 
cured by depending on them than on sources sought other- 
wise. In some cases it was necessary to supplement these 
sources by letters and by specific questions relating to the 
particular case addressed to high-school inspectors and to 
professors of secondary education in state universities. 
Where such data are used, the fact is always indicated in 
the citations of authority. 

The method of study used was to take the important 
phases of high-school administration, which are chapter 
topics, and under these to collect and present the facts. 
The interpretation of these facts is then attempted, and 
this is followed by such conclusions as their interpretations 
seem to warrant. The answer to the question which the 
thesis presents is then sought from these conclusions. In 
the presentation of the facts, detailed data are not pre- 
sented, since they are in print and can always be referred 
to by going to the source indicated. Only summaries which 
contain the phases of the distribution of the facts perti- 
nent to the fundamental question involved are presented. 
The reader who wishes more detailed data than are pre- 
sented can always find them in the sources indicated, and 
readers who do not wish to be burdened with them do not 
need either to wade through or pick their way around ta- 
bles of such materials. Further, it is thought unsound to 
reprint secondary sources. 

In such a study an occasional error is bound to creep in. 
Every effort has been made to keep them out and to pre- 



6 Preface 

sent an accurate array of facts as to what county high 
schools have done as a basis for the theses concerning them 
which are presented in the last chapter. In addition to 
contributing these conclusions, which may be useful in de- 
termining the unit of administration best adapted to sec- 
ondary education, it is hoped that the study has emphasized 
the value of the method already described in reaching these 
conclusions. 



CHAPTER ONE 

the introduction 

The Administrative Units of Secondary Education 

The Prohahle Origin of the Administrative Units of 
Secondary Education 

One of the first questions to arise in studying the admin- 
istrative units of secondary education is: Do these units 
seemingly grow out of the units employed in civil adminis- 
tration? A fairly satisfying answer can be obtained to 
this question by studying the correspondence existing be- 
tween the administrative units employed in civil affairs 
and the ones employed in the administering of secondary 
education throughout the different sections of the country. 
If there exists throughout these regions what might be 
termed a "one-to-one correspondence," it seems a fairly safe 
conclusion that the correlation is causal, that the organiza- 
tion probably grew out of the same conditions in both cases, 
and that the factors developing the one unit were at least 
the most influential causes in developing the other. 

In a study of the kinds of units, their chief general char- 
acteristics and the nature and character of their origin 
would be the points it seems most closely studied. What 
are they, and why are they? would be the questions most 
often before the student. A study of the number and char- 
acter of the units of civil administration as the probable 
origin of educational administrative units will be first dis- 
cussed. 

Admindstrative Units in Civil Affairs 

By a unit in both civil and educational administration, in 
this discussion, is meant the territory under a unified form 
of control. That a similar definition is not uncommon may 
be established by reference to certain rather widely known 
discussions. (Cubberly, "Public School Administration," 
pp. 5-10; U. S. B. Bulletin, No. 44, 1914, Monahan, p. 9; 
Woodrow Wilson, "The State;" James Bryce, "The Amer- 
ican Commonwealth;" and Fairlee, "Municipal Adminis- 
tration," pp. 72-102.) The primary units of civil admin- 
istration are the town of New England; the township of 
the Middle West; the county of the South; the indepen- 
dently chartered cities of various types and sizes, common 
to the several sections of the country ; and the State. 



8 The Administration of 

The Town 

The town, which Woodrow Wilson (Woodrow Wilson, 
"The State," p. 509) says is a lineal descendant of the Saxon 
practices in the days of Tacitus and Caesar, and not an 
American invention, is peculiar to New England. Origi- 
nally it was the collection of houses, with their outlying 
farms, constituting any one settlement. (Bryce, "The 
American Commonwealth," p. 561, Volume I.) In the de- 
velopment of the country these towns have come to em- 
brace not only growing villages, but prosperous cities. But 
the most distinguishing features of the original town still 
characterize it. "The town meeting" (MacDonald, "Gov- 
ernment of Maine," Section 30, and Hart, "Actual Govern- 
ment," p. 82) is still the source of control, and every indi- 
vidual in the town still may exercise his voice in that con- 
trol. The officers of the town are still the selectmen, three 
to nine in number, a town clerk, treasurer, assessors and 
collectors of taxes, a school committee, and a constable. 
(Ibid, p. 567, and Woodrow Wilson, "The State," p. 51.) 
It represents, perhaps, the most democratic type of control 
found in America. 

The County 

The county, as a unit of control, is most highly developed 
in the South. While counties are found in other sections 
of the country, even in New England, they are not original 
units of control. They have rather developed from a syn- 
thesis of towns. In the South, however, the county has 
long been the unit of control, even as the town has exercised 
that function in New England. In a way somewhat simi- 
lar to the one already described, the Southern county un- 
dertakes all local administration and has a complete set of 
officers. Usually the executive authority is centralized in 
a small group of county commissioners. (This body in 
some cases, as in Tennessee, can perhaps hardly be de- 
scribed as a small body.) They direct the other officers of 
the county, who usually are: treasurer, superintendent of 
roads, superintendent of education, superintendent of poor, 
an auditor, and a sheriff. (Bryce, "The American Com- 
monwealth," p. 563; Woodrow Wilson, "The State," p. 517.) 
The county, as the unit of administration in government 
affairs, was, as Mr. Ingle says, "frankly undemocratic." 
(Edward Ingle, "Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and 
Political Science," Third Series, pp. 97-199.) "The domi- 
nant idea was graduation of power from the governor down- 
ward, not upward from the people." The chief causes for 
this wide difference in the unit chosen for administration 



County High Schools in the South 9 

were : The country where the first Southern colonies were 
formed was low and fertile, "with a kindly climate, deep 
rivers, broad stretches of inviting country, and a general 
readiness to yield its fruit in season." (Woodrow Wilson, 
'The State," p. 442.) These conditions of soil and climate 
offer as great a contrast to those of New England as that 
shown by the administrative units developed. There were 
other causes, however, that frequently are cited, such as: 
the fact that the settlers of the South were drawn more 
from the rural England, while those in New England came 
more from towns and cities, and that a different motive 
actuated the two groups of settlers. Whichever may have 
been the dominant reason, the simple fact of the matter is, 
there developed in New England the democratic town, while 
at the same time the South developed the less democratic 
county as a unit of administration. 

The Township 

In the Middle West and Northwest, wherever the New 
England settlers have gone, they have carried their idea of 
administration, and the town exists in modified form 
(Bryce, p. 565), as a township. It usually came through- 
out the Northwest, however, later than the county and as 
a division of it, the result of the analysis of the county 
rather than the opposite situation, as described in the New 
England towns. The organization of the township varies 
with localities. In some places the "town meeting," only 
slightly modified, exists ; in others, officers are elected at 
the regular county or state elections. Usually, as in Min- 
nesota (Woodrow Wilson, "The State," p. 514), there are 
three supervisors at the head of a township. The func- 
tions of the township boards vary. In Michigan such a 
board has rather extensive power; in Illinois it is a com- 
mittee of audit solely. Where township organization is 
found, county organization occurs in widely varied forms. 
Very often the division of labor throws upon the county 
the administration of justice and a general supervisory au- 
thority over the townships. 

The City 

The city, as a rule, depends for its administrative organi- 
zation on special legislation. As a type, then, it presents 
many different forms. The authority in this unit is strictly 
delegated. In some cases, as in the case of the city and the 
county of St. Louis, cities have been organized entirely apart 
from the county in which the city is located. This, how- 



10 The Administration of 

ever, is far from the usual plan of organization. The chief 
administrative feature of city government that differs from 
county or township is the existence of the city council, 
which is a legislative body. In other features the admin- 
istrative organization is not fundamentally different from 
that of the township. There may be an executive board 
of several commissioners ; there may be none. Similar 
conditions prevail in townships, as has already been noted. 
(Ashley, "American Government," pp. 57-65.) 

The State 

Bryce says that our American States fall into five divi- 
sions. While each division possesses certain features pe- 
culiar to itself, they are in their administration more sim- 
ilar than dissimilar. Whether they are regarded as the 
unit, which when subdivided furnishes counties and town- 
ships, or whether they are thought of as a collection of such 
units, they are, so far as most administrative features are 
concerned, far more important than any other unit already 
discussed. They have supervisory power over the other 
units mentioned, and the great majority of the matters of 
important legislation, especially education, is left exclu- 
sively to them. (Wilson notes that of the dozen greatest 
problems of legislation before England during the last cen- 
tury, ten at least would have been settled by our states in- 
dividually and would not have resulted in national legisla- 
tion.) 

The Unit of School Administration in New England 

What is the unit of high-school administration in New En- 
gland, with its town unit of civil administration? Histo- 
ries of administration emphasize the historic importance 
of the district unit. This discussion is concerned only with 
the present units. An examination of conditions shows 
these facts. In Massachusetts the state law (Revised Laws 
of Massachusetts, relating to Public Instruction, 1915) pro- 
vides that every town of five hundred householders must 
maintain a high school. Its support is derived from funds 
which the town (under penalty of fine for failure to do so) 
must raise. Its board of control is composed of three mem- 
bers, or any multiple of three as the town may decide, 
elected at the town meeting from its membership. The 
duties of this board are to select and examine the teachers 
and, in general, to exercise supervision and control over the 
school, hi Massachusetts the unit of high-school adminis- 
tration is the town. In Maine (Laws of Maine, relating 



County High Schools in the South 11 

to Public Schools, 1917) the high schools are maintained 
by the towns. They are supported by town tax, supple- 
mented by special state aids. They are controlled by a 
town board of three, chosen at the town meeting, whose 
duties are: the management of the school, including the 
care of its property, the election of the superintendent of 
the town, and the confirmation of the appointment of teach- 
ers by this superintendent. The unit of administration as 
specifically set forth in the law is the tow7i. The same law 
specifically abolishes the district unit. In New Hampshire 
(Laws of New Hampshire, relating to Public Schools, 
1917), every town, under penalty of fine for failure to com- 
ply, as in Massachusetts, is required to appropriate suffi- 
cient money properly to maintain a high school. Its control 
is in a board of three, whose duties are to select teachers, to 
prescribe rules, for management, for studies, classification, 
and for the discipline of the school. "Each town shall con- 
stitute a single district for school purposes." (Ibid, p. 14.) 
In Vermont (Vermont School Laws, Acts 1915), every town 
must maintain a high school. Every town has a board of 
directors, consisting of three citizens of the town, who have 
the custody of the school equipment, who elect the teach- 
ers and town superintendent, subject to the approval of 
the State Commissioner of Education, and who recommend 
to the town meeting the amount of money necessary to 
maintain the school. "A town shall constitute a district 
for school purposes," the law definitely states. (Ibid, p. 7, 
Section 11.) In Connecticut (Connecticut School Docu- 
ment, 1916) high schools are established and maintained 
by towns. In every town there is a board of school visitors, 
three, six, or nine in number, as the town shall determine. 
They elect the superintendent and the teachers. This town 
board has power to form, unite, alter, and dissolve any sub- 
divisions of the town as school districts. The administra- 
tive unit in Connecticut, then, is the town. In Rhode Is- 
land (Laws of Rhode Island, relating to Education, Sup- 
plement No. 7, Acts of 1916) the laws provide for the elec- 
tion of a town committee and fix the unit of distribution as 
the town. The school code of which this is the supplement 
fixes the unit of secondary education as the town. 

An examination of both civic and educational administra- 
tion in New England shows the unit of administration to be 
the town. It seems reasonable to conclude that the condi- 
tions which produced the civil unit, plus the traditions of 
its long use, and the additional advantage of having one 
system of administrative machinery serve for the various 
fields of administration, are responsible for the town's be- 



12 The Administration of 

ing the unit of administration in school administration. 
It seems equally reasonable to conclude that the merits and 
faults of the one will feature somewhat in the other. The 
principle of the New England town government which has 
excited the most comment is its thorough democracy. The 
corollaries have been the strongly developed local interest 
and a corresponding degree of decentralization. Without 
regard to their merits or faults, both these would be ex- 
pected to appear in the educational administration where 
the town was a unit. 

The County 

The county, as a unit of school administration for secon- 
dary schools, is discussed at length in the next chapter. At 
this point it seems sufficient to observe that in its highest 
development it is found in that section where the county, 
as a unit in political government, is most often found — 
namely, in the South. It is found in other sections, brit 
not as an exclusive unit, the parallelism with the status 
of the county in political government being very pro- 
nounced. In sections where the county is hardly developed 
to the point of recognition its part in educational adminis- 
tration is correspondingly negligible. It also would be ex- 
pected that the same chief characteristic, more definite cen- 
tralization of authority, would also occur in the administra- 
tion of the secondary schools. 

The Educational Unit of the Middle West and Northivest 

In the Middle West and in the commonly called "North- 
west" the prevailing unit will be studied through the study 
of a number of representative cases. An examination of 
the laws of a number of these states shows that in them the 
unit of school administration, especially when applied to 
secondary education, is most often the townshiD. When 
the educational codes for Michigan, Wisconsin. Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Colorado, Utah, Washington, South Dakota. North 
Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, and Pennsyl- 
vania were examined, this type of administrative organi- 
zation was found. In a number of other states a unit of 
high-school administration growing out of the consolida- 
tion of districts may easily coincide with either the mu- 
nicipal or the congressional townships, thus making, in ef- 
fect, the township the unit of administration. Illustrations 
of this latter condition may be found in the states of Mis- 
souri, Kansas, and Nebraska. An examination of several 
cases belonging to the first group shows the township the 
unit of educational administration in an original sense. 



County High Schools in the South 13 

In North Dakota (General School Laws of North Dakota, 
1915) the common-school district is any territory "having 
territory not less than a congressional township." Since 
high schools may be established in any district by majority 
vote upon petition of ten voters, and, further, since the con- 
trolling board is chosen from this same congressional town- 
ship, it becomes the unit of secondary educational adminis- 
tration. In Michigan (School Laws of Michigan, 1917) 
the districts are formed by the township board, who may 
form townships into single districts. As it is the duty of 
the township board of education in these districts to estab- 
lish and maintain township high schools, the unit for ad- 
ministering the rural high schools becomes the township. 
In Ohio (School Laws of Ohio, 1915) the district units are 
the city, the village, the rural township, and the county. 
Township boards of education establish high schools and, 
in general, control them. One of the three administrative 
units existing in the state is the township. In Indiana 
(School Laws of Indiana, 1915) the district unit is the 
township. There is one high school in each township hav- 
ing a property evaluation of $600,000. There is a board of 
trustees elected by the township trustees, who have general 
charge of the school. In these states support of the town- 
ship high school is divided among the township, the county, 
and the state. Certainly the support is less decidedly lo- 
cal than it is in the towns of New England. A closer 
scrutiny of one of these Middle West states shows more 
clearly the organization of the township unit. 

The Community an Educational Unit 

In a previous paragraph, discussing the educational unit 
of the Middle West and Northwest, it was pointed out that 
the consolidation of districts could oftentimes, and frequent- 
ly did, follow the lines of municipal and congressional town- 
ships. It should be noted that perhaps they equally often 
disregard these lines; and while area, population, and ad- 
ministrative organization correspond rather closely to that 
of the township, they cannot be classed as such in the lit- 
eral meaning of the civil unit. Discussions in later chap- 
ters show that the tendency to make the community the 
unit of administration where districts are consolidated is 
not confined to the states of the Middle West. In discussing 
this unit, however, the same state (Illinois) is used which 
will be used in the discussion of the township. One rea- 
son for this choice is that in this state the community is, 
in general, as often the unit as is the township. There are 
only twenty-seven counties in Illinois in which there is no 



14 The Administf'ation of 

township nor community high school. Mr. Holhster, com- 
menting on this type of unit (Bulletin No. 35, 1917, U. S. B., 
'The Township and Community High School Movement in 
Illinois," H. A. Hollister), names as the first advantage the 
uniting of town and county in maintaining a "truly demo- 
cratic high school" for both urban and rural population. 
Another advantage which he stresses is the strong com- 
munity interest which develops around them. One of the 
most interesting of these community high schools is the 
La Salle-Peru-Oglesby School, in La Salle County. It is 
not the intention of this study to discuss in detail this 
school. Such a discussion is found in the study quoted. 
(Ibid, p. 45.) This study is content to point out the com- 
munity as a unit for reasons already enumerated and to 
point out the fundamental differences between it and the 
strictly township organization. 

The Township in Illinois 

For studying more closely the township, Illinois is chosen. 
It seems to embody the features characteristic of such an 
organization. It, perhaps, has fewer features that would 
tend to complicate the study than has any other state listed. 
Historically, Northern Illinois was settled by families origi- 
nally from New England ; Souttiern Illinois, by settlers from 
Kentucky and Tennessee. One group brought ideals and 
ideas from the New England town ; the other group, the 
governmental plans of the Southern county. (Bryce, "The 
American Commonwealth," Volume I, p. 572.) While the 
Southern settlers came first and established the county, 
the New England influence, struggling for the town, suc- 
ceeded as early as 1848 in legalizing township oiganiza- 
tion. This was again embodied in the Constitution of 1870. 
(Illinois Constitution of 1870, Article X, Section 5.) The 
school code of Illinois describes an organization for the ad- 
ministration of secondary education which is defined as a 
township unit. (School Laws of Illinois, Circular No. 126, 
1917.) Its prevalence is illustrated in a quotation from 
Superintendent Blair (quoted from a personal letter re- 
ceived from Superintendent Blair) : "The township high- 
school district is the prevalent administrative unit in Illinois 
for secondary education." 

A school township, as defined by Illinois law, is a congres- 
sional township. The affairs of the township high school 
are administered by the township board of education, con- 
sisting of five members, serving for a term of three years. 
This board is elected at the same time and in the same way 
that the trustees of the township for the public elementary 



County High Schools in the South 15 

schools are chosen. The first duty of this board, after or- 
ganization, is to secure a proper and suitable location for 
the township high school. In the general administration of 
the school, this board has a very broad responsibility. To 
illustrate, they are entirely responsible for the selection of 
its teachers, for levying taxes, and for making the rules for 
the management of the schools. While they may, and per- 
haps most often do, accept the recommendation of the 
county superintendent or of the state high-school inspector, 
they are not legally bound to do so, the only legal checks 
upon them, in this regard, being the certification laws of 
the state and the check which the state department admin- 
isters through inspection and state aids. Legally, at least, 
the major part of the administration of these schools is in 
the hands of this board. As to programs of study, entrance 
requirements, and privileges of affiliation with higher in- 
stitutions, the same requirements for entrance and the same 
quantitative requirements for graduation are made that are 
made of the high schools administered through other units. 
It is true, in fact, that many high schools which were origi- 
nally classed as town ("town" is here used, not with the New 
England meaning, it was given earlier in this discussion, but 
with the meaning commonly accepted outside New En- 
gland — that is, being an urban community) high schools 
have reorganized, with the township as the unit of adminis- 
tration. While their administrative unit has been dis- 
tinctly the unit which has cared for the rural secondary 
population, their programs of study have been evaluated on 
the same basis and they have enjoyed the same privileges 
from the University of Illinois as have the high schools in 
the urban comumnities. Their purpose, if the number on 
the accredited list of the state university and of the North 
Central Association, or if the close similarity of their pro- 
grams of study, with their requirements for entrance and 
for graduation, are objective criteria, is not different. It 
is, in fact, in their administration that these schools differ 
from those of other units of administration. They exist 
for, and are administered by, the people of a township. 
Their chief control is in their township high-school board. 
Their chief support is in their taxable wealth of the town- 
ship. They seem to be almost as close to the people of their 
unit as were the schools of the local district unit. Very 
little of its democracy seems to have been relinquished. 
Doubtless they retain most of the advantages, in the way of 
local interest, of the more democratic unit, and may also 
carry the weaknesses resulting from the lack of centralized 
administrative control. 



16 The Administration of 

General Situation Where Township Unit Exists 

In general, that section of the country which in pohtical 
administration shows the division of authority between 
township and county, shows a similar situation in educa- 
tional administration. For the administrative unit in many 
rural communities, and in communities on the transitional 
ground between rural and urban, the township forms a 
much-used unit of educational administration, especially 
for secondary schools. This unit has, in fact, been more 
highly developed in this respect than it has in civil admin- 
istration, (For a more detailed discussion of the township 
high school, see U. S. Bulletin No. 35. 1917; Holhster, "The 
Township and Community High School Movement in Illi- 
nois.") 

The City Ufiit 

The city, as a unit of secondary administration, will be 
discussed very briefly. As a civic unit, it exists in all sec- 
tions of the country ; as an educational unit, its distribution 
is equally wide. It exists where the county is the unit, 
where the township and county both exist, and where the 
New England town controls. Since its existence is univer- 
sal, as far as this discussion is concerned, only one illus- 
tration will be discussed. In Kansas (The Common School 
Laws of Kansas, 1917) the city is recognized by law as a 
unit of educational administration, and its existence spe- 
cifically provided. Cities of the first and second class (ex- 
cepting cities between 50,000 and 75,000, inclusive ; Ibid, p. 
47, Chapter V) are organized as such. Their control is 
placed in a board of six members, elected from the city at 
large, who are in general control of both elementary and 
secondary education. Among their fundamental duties are 
the selection of a superintendent and of each member of 
the teaching force ; to provide, as a part of the city budget, 
the necessary funds for the maintenance of, and, in general, 
to exercise final control over, the schools, checked only by 
certification laws, conditions necessary to participate in 
special aids, and the pressure of state inspection and classi- 
fication. 

The State 

Like the city, the state, as a unit in some pha,se of the 
administration of its education, is universal. Largely for 
this reason, only one instance of a state, as a unit of sec- 
ondary education, will be discussed — California. There, 
to a higher degree than in any other state, the idea of state 
control and state support seems to have been developed. 
Further, in their laws there has been definitely set forth the 



County High Schools in the South 17 

status of this unit. It is, therefore, made the basis of this 
discussion. 

The California High-School Unit, the State 

In California the unit of secondary educational adminis- 
tration is very definitely the state. Not only is this true in 
educational practice, but it is also true in legal code. The 
Constitution (Constitution of California, 'Article IV, Sec- 
tion 25, Subsection 27), as well as the special educational 
code, provides for this. Enumerating a list of things which 
the legislature shall not do, it says: "The legislature shall 
not pass local or special laws in any of the following enu- 
merated cases — that is to say." The twenty-seventh of 
these, for illustration, is: "Providing for the management 
of the common schools." When high schools are estab- 
lished, they are subject to control by a state board of seven 
members in the following matters: This board fixes the 
requirements for credentials for all high-school teachers in 
the state, and this, supplemented by inspection, works out 
almost" as if the force were state appointed. This board 
adopts the textbooks for every high school, and must ap- 
prove every program of study taught in California high 
schools. It is not these features, however, which fix the 
state as the administrative unit. Hollister says (Hollister, 
"High School Administration") that it is in support that 
the state as a unit is most strongly featured. California 
appropriates for high-school support fifteen dollars per pu- 
pil in average attendance, the attendance of the previous 
year constituting the basis for that apportionment. This 
is apportioned to the high schools as follows: One-third 
irrespective of the number enrolled or of the average at- 
tendance, the remaining two-thirds on the basis of average 
daily attendance. 

Conclusions 

The following conclusions seem warranted by the study 
of political and educational administrative units : 

First : There is a very close correlation between the units 
of civil administration and educational administration em- 
ployed throughout the different sections of the country. 
This correlation amounts almost to a one-to-one correspond- 
ence. 

Second: The chief characteristics of the civil units seem 
to be featured in the educational ones. Where one feature, 
as decentralization of authority, appears very strongly in 
a civil unit, it usually appears correspondingly strong in 
the school administration of the same section. 



18 The Administration of 

Third: It seems reasonable to assume that conditions 
which were the chief causes in developing units of civil 
administration were also the principal ones in developing 
educational units. If certain economic, geographic, and 
racial conditions are responsible for any type of unit in 
civil administration, they would seem to be responsible for 
it in educational administration. 

Fom^th: The maximum value of any particular unit of 
educational administration will depend on its adaptability 
to the conditions named in Three, and that adaptability to 
the conditions named can be partly predicted by its success 
in civil administration. 



CHAPTER TWO 

The County, a Unit of Educational Administration, 
With Especial Reference to Secondary Schools 

The County, a Unit in Educational Administration 

In the preceding chapter the different types of civil ad- 
ministration, including the county, were discussed. It was 
found that, partly because of geographical conditions and 
partly because of the habits which the original settlers 
brought with them, the county as a unit of civil administra- 
tion has become universal in the South. Partly for the 
reason that it must serve an agricultural population and 
partly, perhaps, because of the existing administrative ma- 
chinery, the county early established itself in this same 
community as an educational unit. While it is found in 
other sections, sometimes as a unit of elementary educa- 
tion, at other times as a unit of secondary education, al- 
ways it has developed either from or in connection with an- 
other educational unit, which would be considered the orig- 
inal one. Not so, however, in the South. Here county 
oversight and control of education, in a number of cases, 
has evolved as an original factor in the general scheme of 
education. 

Prevalence of the County Unit 

As a unit of educational administration the county has 
long existed in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, 
and North Carolina. In Tennessee and Kentucky during 
the last decade the county unit has developed from the dis- 
trict as an original unit; and it exists in connection with 
other units, or developed from them, in at least three other 
states of the South — namely, in South Carolina, Texas, and 
Virginia. More will be said of the status of the county in 
these states in the succeeding paragraphs. For a prelim- 
inary grasp of the general situation it is sufficient to note 
that in twelve Southern states the county is the unit of 
educational administration. In fact, in all the states in 
what is commonly termed the "South" the county unit of 
control, as well as the county unit of supervision, prevails. 
In the border states it also prevails widely. Arkansas was 
the last of the Southern states to adopt the unit, and in 
Missouri, which is one of the most populous of the border 
states to continue the district unit, a bill was introduced in 
the last legislature (House Bill No. 871, Fiftieth General 
Assembly of Missouri) which, if it had been passed, would 



20 The Administration of 

put this state on the county basis. The bill, however, was 
allowed to die in the closing days of the legislative calen- 
dar, and the state remained on the list of those whose ad- 
ministrative unit is the district. In at least one state of 
the far West (Utah) the county exists as a supplementary 
unit of control. In a number of states in other sections the 
county unit exists in a form which Monahan has character- 
ized as a ''semi-county plan." (U. S. Bulletin No. 44, 1914; 
Monahan, "County Unit Organization for the Administra- 
tion of Rural Schools.") 

Advantages of the County as a Unit of School 
Administration 

Monahan selects as the chief advantages of the county 
unit for administration of rural schools these two : First, 
that it is the unit of supervision, legally at least, in a large 
number of states. (At the present time — 1919 — five-sixths 
of the states employ the county as a unit of supervision.) 
Second, in civil affairs it is the unit of taxation for all 
things but education. It would seem that these two ad- 
vantages might hold good in the administration of all edu- 
cation under the control of these units. To these two rea- 
sons may be added these others : As is the case in the 
administration of civil affairs, the county seems to have 
developed in the more sparsely settled agricultural states. 
The county seems to have flourished in the South, partly 
at least, because it is adapted to the conditions found there. 
To these may be added one other, which is not the least 
important of the ones named — a reason which has, perhaps, 
been the basic reason actuating the school people who have 
been foremost in advocating the county unit as a reform. 
Local control through town and district hafe certainly meant 
the development of local interest and local enthusiasm for 
schools. Much that is good in the American system of 
education can undoubtedly be traced directly to these fac- 
tors. They have, in fact, been the great contributing and 
distinguishing features of the system ; but along with them, 
also, oftentimes, doubtless, there has existed local inter- 
ference and local influences that have not made for the best 
results. The situation which Winston Churchill describes 
(Coniston, p. — ) may too often have found its counterpart 
in fact and its existence due partly to the local unit of ad- 
ministration. As in civil affairs, the county is "frankly 
less democratic" than the smaller units of school adminis- 
tration, and is a step directly toward a more centralized 
administrative authority. 



County High Schools in the South 21 

The County as a Unit in Secondary School Administration 

"School laws," says Hollister, "are certainly the basis for 
all school administration. No discussion having to do with 
the administration of secondary schools, therefore, would 
be complete without some inquiry as to the legislation 
which stands back of such an administration." (Hollister's 
"High School Administration," p, 28.) Accepting this 
principle as providing a sound basis for the discussion of 
the county high school, its distribution and its administra- 
tive features, it is necessary to examine first the laws 
which established these schools. In general, legal provi- 
sion for county high schools in some form was found in the 
states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Tennessee, Utah, Virginisi, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 

Alaham.a County High Schools 

The county as an administrative unit in education has 
existed in its present form in Alabama since 1903. (Mon- 
ahan, U. S. B. Bulletin No. 44, 1914, p. 23.) The county 
high schools were estabhshed in 1907, the Code of 1915 
merely including the Act of August, 1907, which created 
these schools. (Acts of Alabama Legislature, 1907; an 
Act to establish state schools known as "county high 
schools," August 7, 1907.) The Code of 1915 made these 
provisions concerning the establishment and the adminis- 
tration of high schools (General School Laws of Alabama, 
1915) : The State High School Commission, consisting of 
the Governor, the Auditor, and the State Superintendent 
of Education, shall locate in every county in the state which 
has already secured a site of not less than five acres of land 
and has erected a suitable building, costing not less than 
five thousand dollars, a county high school. These high 
schools are under the control of the county boards of edu- 
cation, subject to the supervision of the State High School 
Commission, supplemented by the supervision of the county 
superintendents. The support of these schools comes from 
both the state and the county. In a subsequent chapter 
more detailed features of the administration, as legally pro- 
vided, of these Alabama high schools will be discussed. 
The present chapter is satisfied to enumerate briefly these 
county high schools, establishing their distribution on the 
basis quoted from Hollister. 

Arkansas County High Schools 

The last Legislature in Arkansas passed a bill (Senate 
Bill No. 248, General Assembly, State of Arkansas) which 



22 The Administration of 

provides for a county board of education, consisting of five 
elected members. This board appoints the county super- 
intendent, whose qualifications were specially provided in 
the law. . This county board will have "direction and su- 
pervision of all the public schools in the county." It will 
apportion school funds and form or combine local school 
districts. While the law does not provide for the estab- 
lishment of special county high schools of the Alabama 
type, by implication high schools in Arkansas, along with 
elementary schools, seem to become county high schools in 
the sense that they are under county control. The bill be- 
comes effective May, 1920. 

Florida, County High Schools 

In Florida the county system of administration, as it is 
at present employed, is much older than in Alabama, the 
present system dating back to 1885. There is one feature 
of the county law in Florida which is especially noticeable. 
Even the schools of most of the cities come within the 
jurisdiction of the county boards. Not only is the county 
the original unit, but it can fairly be said to be the only one. 
A county board of not more than three members establishes 
high schools throughout the counties. (Digest of the 
School Laws of Florida, 1915.) These high schools are 
controlled in a real sense by the county board. Their su- 
pervision is supplemented by the county superintendents 
and by the state. These Florida county high schools pos- 
sess some very interesting features in program and in ad- 
ministration, which will be discussed at length later. 

Georgia County High Schools 

The laws of Georgia (Georgia School Laws and Deci- 
sions, 1917) do not so specifically provide for the establish- 
ment of county high schools as do some of the others men- 
tioned, particularly the Alabama Code. The administra- 
tive organization in educational matters is the county, hav- 
ing been so since 1887. (Ibid, p. 12.) In 1910 the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Georgia amended the Constitution so that 
counties which had the right to levy taxes for instructing 
in the elementary branches only should have the right to 
vote taxes for educational purposes, thus, by removing the 
restriction, seeming to extend the right of taxation to in- 
clude high schools. (Georgia Constitution, Article 7, Sec- 
tion 6, Paragraph 2.) This is the legal basis for the es- 
tablishment and support of Georgia county high schools. 
It is the foundation for the development of the state-aided, 
"county-controlled" high schools which are included in the 



County High Schools in the South 23 

Georgia report. That the counties have not done their full 
part in a support which is not mandatory is evidenced in 
the report of Prof. Joseph S. Stewart on "Secondary Edu- 
cation" for the year 1917. (Forty-Sixth Annual Report, 
Georgia, 1917, p. 236.) But the point here sought is that 
the secondary schools of Georgia are controlled by county 
boards, whose administration is supplemented by county 
superintendents, state boards, and inspection. 

Louisiana County High Schools 

In Louisiana the parish is the unit of educational admin- 
istration. The Constitution (Article 250, Louisiana State 
Constitution) provides a parish board of education, as well 
as makes the parish the unit of administration. The par- 
ish board has the power to establish central or high schools 
when necessary, subject to the permission of the State 
Board of Education, a constitutionally provided body. The 
support of the high schools is divided between the state and 
the county. The parish board elects a parish superintend- 
ent and the teachers, who must, however, be certificated 
under the direction of the state board. As an illustration 
of how completely the parish is the unit of control, all the 
public schools of the Parish of Orleans (containing the 
city of New Orleans) shall be under the direction of the 
Orleans Parish Board, said board consisting of five mem- 
bers. (Public School Laws of Louisiana, p. 129.) The 
present plan of administrational organization has been in 
effect since 1870. 

Maryland County High Schools 

The Educational Code in 1912, in Maryland (Maryland 
Public School Laws, 1918, Chapter I), provides a system 
of public education for the state. It says : "Educational 
matters aff'ecting a county shall be under control of a 
county board of education." It appoints a county superin- 
tendent and acts upon his nominations in appointing teach- 
ers. It determines educational policies for the county. It 
establishes high schools, subject to the consent of the state 
superintendent, whenever in their judgment it is to the 
interest of the county to do so. Support is divided between 
the state and the county. While the Code is more specific 
in the regulations pertaining to high schools than in any 
other Code mentioned before this, the administering of 
these regulations is through the county board of education 
and its appointee, the county superintendent. 



24 The Administration of 

Kentucky County- High Schools 

The legal basis for the county high school in Kentucky 
was provided in the Act of 1908, which provided for a 
county high school in each county of the state which did not 
already possess a high school of the first class. The county 
boards in the various counties have full power and authority 
to establish and administer these schools. Their support 
is divided between state and county, a specific county tax 
being mandatory. The administration of the board is sup- 
plemented by a county superintendent and a high-school in- 
spector, who is Professor of Secondary Education in the 
state university.' The State Board of Education is an ex- 
ofRcio board, consisting of the State Superintendent of Ed- 
ucation, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney-General. 
The administrative duties are, as set forth by code, con- 
fined to the "common schools" of the state. (Common 
Schools Laws, Kentucky, 1918, Volume II, Number 2, Chap- 
ter IV, p. 13.) The Act which established county high 
schools in Kentucky was part of the Act which replaced the 
existing district unit with the county plan of control, the 
county being subdivided into divisions and these again sub- 
divided into districts. Subdivisions are either four, six, 
or eight in number, and the chairman of the subdivision 
board of trustees, consisting of one member from each 
district, together with the county superintendent, from the 
county board of education. This creates a board of five, 
seven, or nine members in control of secondary education 
in each county in the state. (Ibid. pp. 38, 45.) Thus 
while the unit of educational administration might be 
termed "semi-county," the unit of secondary administration 
is the county. 

Mississippi County High Schools 

"Hemingway's Code," the laws of 1910, provide for Mis- 
sissippi agricultural high schools. The county board of 
education is empowered to establish for each county two 
of these schools, one for each of the races — white and black. 
The support of these schools is legally in the hands of the 
county board of five trustees. Their control is supple- 
mented by the inspection of the state department and by 
the supervision of a county superintendent. But the real 
administration of secondary education is in the hands of 
the county boards. Mississippi has employed its present 
system of administration since 1903. Its agricultural high 
schools have existed since 1910. (School Laws of State of 
Mississippi, 1918.) 



County High Schools in the South ■ 25 

North Carolina County High Schools 

The County Board of Education of North Carohna, which 
has general control of all schools of' the county, elects a 
county superintendent and makes all the regulations con- 
cerning pupils and teachers, may establish a high school in 
any township in the county whenever said township shall 
vote the necessary special tax, or it may establish a high 
school in any special district, without respect to township 
boundaries, when the same condition has been complied 
with, and it shall establish in every county that has com- 
plied with the provisions of "The County Farm Life High 
School Law" a county farm-life high school. The support 
of all these types of high schools is divided between local 
unit and state, administered through the county. All are 
county high schools in that they are established and in gen- 
eral controlled by the County Board of Education. Some 
of its functions are delegated to school committees, ap- 
pointed by it for subdivisions ; but supervisory control is 
retained. The present plan of organization in general has 
existed since 1900 ; farm life county high schools, since 
1911. (Public School Law of North Carolina, 1917.) 

South Carolina County Control 

In South Carolina in each county there is legally pro- 
vided a county board of education, consisting of three mem- 
bers, whose duty it is to have supervisory control of the 
schools of the county. This board districts the county, cer- 
tificates all teachers, appoints the trustees for the subdis- 
tricts, to whom the board delegates the general manage- 
ment of all the schools of their districts, subject always to 
the supervision of the county board. According to the 
legislative Acts approved March 10, 1919, any school dis- 
trict as described above may be established or a combina- 
tion of districts may establish high schools. As the Code 
of 1916 provided that the board of trustees for the districts 
should be high-school trustees, the high schools are county 
high schools only in that the county board exercises super- 
vision over the district trustees whom they appoint. High 
schools are supported by state aids and by local tax. (Gen- 
eral School Laws of South Carolina.) 

Tennessee County High Schools 

The county high school in Tennessee (Compilation of 
Tennessee School Laws to June 30, 1917, p. 28, Article VII), 
is established by the County Court of the county "when- 
ever it shall appear . . . that public interest requires 



26 The Administration of 

it . . . for the instructing of the children of said 
county." One or more schools may be established. They 
are to be maintained by a special levy, in addition to the 
state levy (five cents on the hundred dollars' worth of tax- 
able property for high-school purposes), of not to exceed 
fifteen cents on the one hundred dollars' worth of all tax- 
able property in the county. The County Court also has 
the authority to create a special fund from other county 
funds not otherwise appropriated, except from the public- 
school fund, to be used in the maintenance of these schools. 
The management and control is in the county high-school 
board, consisting of seven members, six of whom are ap- 
pointed by the County Court for a term of three years. The 
county superintendent is the seventh member of the board. 
This board elects teachers and exercises general supervision 
over the conduct of the school. These high schools are 
classified and their programs of study prescribed by the 
state board of education. Through inspection and classifi- 
cation the board exercises general supervision over the 
schools. State law prescribes the minimum number of 
teachers, and confines their teaching to the high schools. 
The board is in almost full control of the high schools, ex- 
cept in the exempt city districts. Supplementary control 
is in state inspection and university approval. The sys- 
tem evolved from districts and dates from 1907. 

Virginia County High Schools 

Any county board of education or any district board of 
trustees may establish a high school in Virginia. The 
trustees for the magisterial districts are appointed, three 
for each district, by a school trustee electoral board. These 
trustees, with the division superintendent of schools, con- 
stitute the county board of education. (Virginia School 
Laws, 1915.) This is another illustration of what Mona- 
han has called the "semi-county" plan. These high schools 
are not primarily county high schools by establishment," but 
are such in supervision and in a rather large sense in con- 
trol. 

Texas County High Schools 

In Texas a county board of trustees of five elected mem- 
bers have general charge of the schools of the county, both 
elementary and secondary. One of the functions of this 
board is to classify the schools as to whether they are ele- 
mentary or high schools. Another function is to promote 
and establish high schools where needed. Support is di- 
vided between county and special state aid. Since in the 



County High Schools in the South 27 

working out the county board becomes almost strictly a high 
school board, although it legally has other powers, some of 
which pertain to elementary schools, these usually are dele- 
gated to district trustees ; so in this sense Texas high schools 
are county high schools, though there are no special county 
high schools, which aim to serve a portion of the county not 
reached by other schools or to emphasize the teaching of a 
particular subject. 

County High Schools in Other States 

In a number of other states in other sections county high 
schools have been developed. They are grouped for this 
discussion, for it appears from a study of their development 
that their type of administration is somewhat different to 
the type in the section already described. They have been 
evolved from the combination of smaller units for the pur- 
pose of making larger ones which had proved unsatisfac- 
tory. While this is true in some of the states already dis- 
cussed, as in Kentucky and Tennessee, it is less often true. 

The county is legally a supplementary unit of high-school 
administration in Ohio. Any county board may establish 
a county high school and administer it. But any district 
board has the same privilege, and in the high schools al- 
ready established the board of the district in which the high 
school is located controls ; hence the county is merely a sup- 
plement to the existing administration so far as secondary 
education is concerned. (School Laws, State of Ohio, 1915, 
Chapter V.) 

In Utah control of high schools is legally in the hands of 
the county board in the counties where county organization 
prevails. However, such an organization is on a local- 
option basis. Where it has been adopted, other boards be- 
ing abolished, high schools are created and controlled by 
county boards. 

In Wisconsin (Wisconsin Laws of 1915), Kansas (Laws 
Relating to the Common Schools of Kansas), Iowa (School 
Laws of Iowa, 1915), Michigan (State of Michigan, General 
School Laws, 1915), and in other states, county high schools 
legally exist in form and for purposes similar to those 
named above. There is no thought or wish to minimize 
these in this discussion, or to cause them to appear favor- 
ably or unfavorably in comparison to the ones first dis- 
cussed. They are discussed thus briefly, and no attempt is 
made to go into their legal status individually, since this 
study is one of "County High Schools in the South" and 
not of county high schools as a general subject. There are 
many interesting and special features in these schools which 



28 The Administration of 

might be the basis for other studies. As one illustration, 
supervision in the county high schools of Ohio, which will 
be referred to again, might well be studied intensively, both 
as illustrating a unit of supervision and as to the results 
and working out of that supervision as far as those results 
can at present be estimated. Another illustration of a fact 
of unusual interest is the actual working out of the law in 
Iowa, which provides for the establishment of county high 
schools. While the law provides for a county board, which 
will establish county high schools when so elected by the 
county, in the actual working out it seems there has been 
very few such county high schools established. 

Summary 

The county is the unit of administration most prevalent 
in the secondary education of the South. It appears in two 
classes — as the original unit of school administration, which 
has prevailed for a length of time and which has estab- 
hshed the schools of the county; and it appears, as a sec- 
ond class, as a unit which has developed supplementary to 
the existing one, and for the purpose of administering the 
affairs of a special county high school for the people of the 
county. The first group appears almost exclusively in the 
South; the second group appears in a number of states in 
other sections. The first probably appeared in the distribu- 
tion of education by the state to the people of widely settled 
areas through the available civil unit, the county; the sec- 
ond appeared as a relief from a too small unit, and appeared 
as an attempt to secure centralization of authority in school 
administration and a larger unit for taxable purposes. 



CHAPTER THREE 

The County High School — Its Maintenance 

Types of County High Schools in the South 

A study of the county unit, with especial reference to sec- 
ondary education, emphasizes one point. There are at least 
three distinct types of county high schools in the South. 
One, which for purposes of discussion may be called "type 
one," is typified by the Mississippi Agricultural County 
High School. It is a high school that has been evolved out 
of an existing system for the purpose of emphasizing some 
particular phase of education, and is under the control of 
the county board of education largely for two reasons : the 
county forms a convenient unit for administering this type 
of education, since it was developed as the unit of civil ad- 
ministration, and its administrative machinery already ex- 
ists. J Falling within this classification are, besides the Mis- 
sissippi schools, the farm-life high schools of North Caro- 
lina and that portion of the Kentucky county high schools 
which are entirely under control of the county board of edu- 
cation and whose support is derived from the county. It 
is true that these schools in Kentucky constitute but a small 
portion of the entire number of county high schools. That 
the classification is not an arbitrary one, but is based on the 
one made by the inspector who has worked entirely through 
their period of development, will be seen in the subsequent 
discussion. "Type two" will be defined as a system of 
county high schools which provides for secondary education 
in the state and which includes the public high schools of 
the state, except in some cases those of the cities. Illus- 
trative of this type are the schools of Florida, Alabama, 
Louisiana, and Tennessee. "Type three" can be described 
as a system of secondary education which developed under 
different units of control and which later centralized its 
administrative authority in a county board. This classifi- 
cation would include Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, 
and Texas. 

It is, perhaps, doubtful if there exists a really sharp basis 
for the classification which divides types one and two. On 
first appearance these two types would seem to be merged, 
and all the schools would be grouped under two divisions, 
of which type three would constitute one and types one and 
two the other. A closer study of this group, however, in- 
dicates a difference between a system of county high schools. 



30 The Administration of 

like the one in Florida, and a group within a system, as the 
North Carolina farm-life group or the small group of Ken- 
tucky high schools referred to. It should be borne in mind 
that this classification is an arbitrary one and is made for 
convenience in referring to certain groups in later discus- 
sion. 

In discussing the maintenance of county high schools in 
this chapter the emphasis will be placed on the first and 
second groups. Type one, especially, is studied most closely 
as to the actual amount of funds received. In type two the 
funds received also are discussed. In the third group it is 
thought unnecessary to study more than the legal sources of 
support. This decision was based on the fact that the dis- 
tribution of high-school funds in type three necessarily in- 
volves schools which, strictly speaking, would not be classed 
as "county high schools pure and simple." Where high 
schools have developed under various units and have later 
passed under county control, it is not the intention to in- 
clude them in this study more than seems necessary to a fair 
presentation of the facts. The importance of the main- 
tenance of these schools, and the further importance of 
discussing that maintenance from a legal standpoint, was 
set forth by Hollister in a brief summary. "Probably the 
most fundamental point in the legal status of public sec- 
ondary education," says Hollister, "is to be found in the 
provisions for its financial support." It is with such an 
evaluation in mind that the legal bases for the maintenance 
of county high schools is sought. 

In the following discussion the groups defined will be 
discussed in the order already named. Kentucky, Missis- 
sippi, and North Carolina, constituting type one, will be 
discussed first; Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennes- 
see will next be discussed ; and, finally, group three — Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, So,uth Carolina, and Texas — will be dis- 
cussed solely from the standpoint of the legal provision for 
their support. Arkansas is not included in the discussion, 
as it is thought that the adoption of county control in that 
state is much too recent (approved April, 1919, to become 
effective after May 1, 1920) for anything like a permanent 
policy to have been determined. A rather careful study of 
the bill itself (Senate Bill No. 248, General Assembly of the 
State of Arkansas) confirms this conviction, for nowhere 
does the bill interfere with existing practice for maintain- 
ing high schools. It is, therefore, assumed that this be- 
comes a matter of subsequent policy. As the new type of 
administration will, doubtless, evolve a number of changes 
of policy, the present legal bases are not included. 



County High Schools in the South 31 

Maintenance of Kentucky County High Schools — 
Legal Aspects 

The legal provisions for the maintenance of Kentucky- 
county high schools seem largely implied. (Common 
School Laws of Kentucky, 1918, Volume II, No. 2.) The 
Acts of 1918 provide that the county board of education 
shall distribute the funds received from the State Treas- 
urer for paying teachers' salaries. The county must esti- 
mate the amount of money required for all educational needs 
of the county and place this estimate before the county 
fiscal court. The law permits as a maximum tax thirty- 
cents on each hundred dollars' assessed valuation and a poll 
tax of one dollar. An additional ''ad valorem" tax of 
twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars for local school 
purposes may be voted by any subdistrict. (County con- 
stitutes the district unit.) 

The "Working Out" of Kentucky Laws for Maintenance of 
County High Schools 

McHenry Rhoads, High School Inspector for Kentucky, 
in his report for 1917 (Biennial Report, Kentucky, Depart- 
ment of Education, 1916-1917), defines a "county high 
school pure and simple" as one under the direction of the 
county board entirely and supported wholly by county 
funds. This definition would probably class as county 
funds the tax referred to in the preceding paragraph, which 
is levied by the fiscal court of the county, collected by the 
sheriff, and turned over to the county superintendent, who 
is the treasurer of the county board of education. In this 
discussion it is thought best to make use of the definition 
offered by Inspector Rhoads. There is no intention of 
offering these schools as all of Kentucky's county high 
schools, as will be seen in the later chapter on distribution. 
Mr. Rhoads points out that county high schools coming un- 
der this classification constitute a very small fractional part 
of the number of schools, which number has had, in the 
words of the report, "a phenomenal growth." It is also 
thought that "county high schools pure and simple" most 
resemble the ones in Mississippi and North Carolina, which 
are discussed in the next paragraph as type one. 

In the report of total incomes and total amounts paid for 
teachers' salaries for 1917 these facts stand out: 

1. All counties report total amounts paid out, while only 
twelve of the twenty-three designated in the list as county 
high schools report total incomes. Total amounts paid for 
salaries is the only item on which all schools report. 



32 The Administration of 

2. On total incomes annually the range in the twelve 
counties reporting is from $640 to $3,l'i^5. The median 
income, as shown by the same group, is $1,770. (It should 
be pointed out that with only the twelve schools reporting, 
the P.E. in the above figures is nearly one-third the median 
and almost as large as the minimum value.) 

3. One of the sources of income in these high schools is 
tuition. Ten of the twenty-four schools report tuition re- 
ceipts ranging from $5 to $540. (The median amount is 
$25, with a P.E. twice as large as the median and ten times 
as great as the minimum amount. 

4. The range in the amounts paid for teachers' salaries 
is from $480 to $3,480. The median amount paid out is 
$1,350 (undistributed median). The P.E., even with all 
twenty-three counties reporting, is as large as the minimum 
amount and one-third as large as the median. 

5. Twenty-one of the twenty-three schools report a cost 
to the county per pupil per year in county high schools 
ranging from $23 to $90. The median cost (undistributed) 
was $40; the P.E., only one-third the median and one-half 
minimum cost. An illustration of the variability shown by 
data found on maintenance for type one high schools is 
shown by the following table, which also presents these 
facts briefly summarized as follows : 

TABLE I 

Showing Variability in Total Income, Cost Per Pupil, Etc., in 
Kentucky County High Schools 

No. 
Schools Maxi- Mini- 
Reporting mum mum Median P.E. 

Total income 12 $3,175 $640 $1,770 545 

Tuition - 10 540 IS 25 53 

Total amount paid for teachers' salaries. 23 3,480 480 1,350 495 

Cost per pupil per year to county 21 90 23 40 

As it is the purpose of this table to show variability, it is not thought necessary to 
include an entire distribution of these data. Further, since the sources (indicated 
throughout the chapter) are in print, it seems unnecessary to reproduce those tables. 
Data concerning individual schools can be had by referring to sources indicated. 

In the subsequent discussion of Mississippi and North 
Carolina, only the number of frequencies and the accom- 
panying data will be given, without any attempt to evaluate 
them. In this case the probable error was pointed out 
merely to prevent any undue emphasis which might be 
given to these data and to avoid the appearance of having 
drawn any hard and fast conclusions from a paucity of data. 
The data are presented as they exist, and not as objective 
evidence to support any conclusions which they really would 
not justify. They are to be taken for their worth. They 
are illustrative, not proof. 



County High Schools in the South 33 

Maintenance of Mississippi County High Schools — 
Legal Basis 

The law of 1910, which finally established the county ag- 
ricultural high schools in Mississippi, makes these funda- 
mental provisions for the support of these schools. (School 
Laws of the State of Mississippi, 1918, p. 18.) State sup- 
port is provided for them, and is partly, at least, on the 
basis of the number of boarding pupils the school has. 
With less than thirty boarding pupils per month, the school 
will receive $1,500 from the state annually. A bi-county 
school, with eighty boarding pupils, may receive $4,000. 
Between this maximum and minimum range are at least 
three other classifications, all three of which are deter- 
mined by the number of boarding pupils. In addition to 
this state fund, the county board of supervisors must levy 
a maintenance tax of not to exceed two mills on all the tax- 
able property of the county. Separate from the mainte- 
nance fund, the board of supervisors may issue bonds to 
build and to equip these schools. Thus there are two gen- 
eral major sources of maintenance for these schools — state 
and county funds. 

Mississippi Agricultural High Schools — Funds as 
Distributed 

There are (Bulletin No. 10, Part II, State Department of 
Education, Mississippi, ''County Agricultural High Schools, 
with Course of Study," 1916-1917) forty-four of these 
schools and three more being built. From county levies 
they receive an average support of $4,428. Each receives 
from the state not less than $1,500, and a few receive the 
maximum of $4,000. Their average equipment in lands 
and buildings is $27,309. They expend for teachers' sala- 
ries yearly an average of $4,015. On the average, local 
support, measured in dollars, is greater than state support. 

North Carolina Farm-Life High Schools 

The farm-life high-school districts, which may be school 
district, township, or county, must provide by taxation or 
otherwise annually $2,500. This is separate from the funds 
for the establishment of the schools. After all the provi- 
sions of the law have been complied with satisfactorily, 
each high school may receive from the state $2,500 annu- 
ally. (Public School Laws of North Carolina, 1917.) In 
the twenty-one schools in 1917-1918 the state appropria- 
tions ranged from $2,500, which four schools received, to 
$110, which two schools received, the median amount re- 



34 The Administration of 

ceived being $1,500 (undistributed median), seven schools 
receiving this amount. The funds received from the county 
school funds and from the county commissioners range from 
$2,500, which four districts provide, to no funds (either no 
local funds provided by one county or none reported) in 
another. The lowest amount of local funds where they are 
provided is $1,250, which occurs in four districts. The 
median (undistributed) is also $1,500. In total funds for 
maintenance these schools range from $5,800, which one 
school receives annually, to $2,300, received by another. 
The median amount received is $3,000, which is received 
by five schools. The twenty-one schools receive a total of 
$73,723.35, of which forty-six per cent comes from the state. 
Forty-six per cent of the remainder comes from the county 
school fund and from the county commissioners, the state 
and the counties providing the same per cent of support. 
These schools represent an investment of a little more than 
a half-million dollars in school buildings and equipment. 

Summary of Schools of Type One 

These three groups of schools constitute the kind denomi- 
nated as "type one" at the beginning of the chapter. They 
are county high schools, two of which, at least, are for the 
purpose of emphasizing some particular course or courses 
of study. In the case of the Kentucky group it can at least 
be said that they exist for a special administrative reason — 
that of reaching a group not reached by the regular sys- 
tem — and not as a part of the regular administrative plan. 
The next schools discussed will be the ones denominated as 
"type two," including Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and 
Tennessee. 

Alabama County High Schools — Sources for Maintenance — 

Legal Basis 

The sources from which Alabama county high schools 
derive support are three — from the state, from the county, 
and from a matriculation fee. (There are some other mi- 
nor sources which seem really subdivisions of these three.) 
Alabama counties receive funds from the state for the sup- 
port of the public schools, which funds are apportioned on 
the basis of the school population. From this general fund 
the county commissioners are authorized to appropriate 
money to aid in buildings for county high schools and for 
their maintenance. (Acts of Legislature, August 26, 1909.) 
This appropriation is made on the basis that the county high 
school is a part of the public-school system, an interpreta- 



County High Schools in the South 35 

tion which was stated in a ruling by the Attorney-General 
of Alabama, August 21, 1908. (Ruling by the Attorney- 
General of Alabama, August 21, 1908.) In addition to this 
state fund, the state appropriates annually to each high 
school $3,000. The county must provide five acres of land 
for a site, and must erect a building which will cost not less 
than $5,000. For maintenance the county may appropriate 
from the general fund or may levy a special tax. 

Actual Receipts, Alabama County High Schools 

The funds actually received by the fifty-seven county 
high schools of Alabama range from $3,320 in one county 
to $7,887.25 in another, the county high school which re- 
ceives a median maintenance receiving $4,205.25. As the 
state makes a flat-rate appropriation of $3,000 to each 
school, that means that, from all other sources besides the 
state, the county having the minimum for maintenance 
raised $320, while the one with a maximum raised $4,887.25. 
Of the $320 raised by one county, $290 is the product of 
the matriculation fees, no money being listed as the result 
of appropriation of the county board of education or from 
the board of revenue or Commissioners' Court. (Report of 
the State Inspector of Secondary Schools, Bulletin No. 58, 
Alabama, Department of Education, 1916-1917.) In the 
other, $1,142.50 is from matriculation fees and $3,417 from 
the county board of education. In the median county, 
$620 came from matriculation and $500 was appropriated 
from the county board. The funds mentioned are wholly 
for maintenance, no money being expended for alterations 
of buildings or grounds in either the minimum or the me- 
dian counties. In the maximum county, $322.01 additional 
funds were so spent. Repairs and replacement of equip- 
ment was $271.21 in the minimum county, $224.42 in the 
median, and $251.71 in the maximum. The total funds 
received for the maintenance of these fifty-seven schools 
was $248,230.42. Of this, $171,000, or nearly seventy per 
cent, was received from the state. Of the remainder, nearly 
ten per cent ($23,771.51) comes from county boards and 
from boards of revenue or the Commissioners' Court. More 
than thirteen per cent ($33,911.95) comes from matricula- 
tion fees. Of the total amount received, nearly eighty per 
cent ($194,725.47) was spent for actual instruction, teach- 
ers' and principals' salaries. 

Maintenance of Florida County High Schools 

Florida laws provide for state support of county high 
schools (Digest of the School Laws of the State of Florida, 



36 The Administration of 

1915) by state taxation, by local taxation, and by special 
state aid. A special tax of one mill on all the taxable prop- 
erty of the state is levied and apportioned to the public 
schools, the unit of apportionment being the average at- 
tendance and the apportionment being made by the State 
Superintendent. In addition to the funds raised by this 
state tax, each county is required to collect every year a tax 
of not less than three mills nor more than seven mills per 
dollar on all taxable property. There are some other 
sources from which the county funds are increased. Some 
of these sources are: Interest from the state school fund, 
the net proceeds from all the fines collected in the county, 
and the proceeds from all the capitation taxes. All these 
funds are in the hands of and are administered by the 
county board of education. It is their business to appor- 
tion them among the various schools of the county, to pro- 
vide for elementary education, and to set aside the funds 
necessary for the support of the county high schools. In 
addition to these, there is still another source of support for 
these schools — through special aid from the state. The 
law provides that every high school which maintains two 
years of approved work shall receive annually $360. Every 
high school which maintains four years of approved work 
shall receive $600. In the working out of these the high 
schools are not receiving these special state aids. Special 
aid based on an average attendance of eighty per cent hav- 
ing been declared unconstitutional, the other special aids 
referred to are not received by the high schools. (Ibid., 
note, p. 50.) The support received by the Florida county 
high schools for the year ending 1915, as shown by the 
report of Dr. Thackston, High School Inspector (Biennial 
Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Florida, 
1916), is illustrated by these data. The total income re- 
ceived by thirty-six four-year high schools ranges from 
$1,000 to $19,000. The median amount received by these 
schools is $4,057. Other than four-year schools, seven two- 
year and five three-year schools reporting, show a range in 
total income from $600 to $5,890, with a median support of 
$1,540. 

Maintenance of Louisiana Parish High Schools 

Louisiana Laws (Public School Laws of Louisiana, 1916) 
provide that for the support of the public schools there 
shall be a state tax, which will be not less than one and one- 
fourth mills. To supplement these are the interest on the 
proceeds derived from the sale of public lands and the pro- 
ceeds which may accrue to the state from bequests, estates 
without heirs, etc. All these funds shall be apportioned to 



County High Schools in the South 37 

each different parish on the basis of the school population, 
to be apportioned by the various parish boards of educa- 
tion to the different schools. It is legally provided that in 
this apportionment no advantage be given to either ele- 
mentary or to the high school, but that equal terms be pro- 
vided for each. In addition to these state funds, the parish 
may levy a tax which in total shall not exceed the total state 
tax. The parish must levy at least three mills for school 
purposes. A poll tax which is distributed in the parish 
where collected is also added to the fund. Parishes which 
wish special privileges may, under certain restrictions, vote 
special taxes. As a still further supplement, the state ap- 
propriated out of the general fund, for the support of high 
schools, $50,000 annually for 1917 and 1918. For these 
same years it appropriated for domestic science and agri- 
culture $75,000. 

Maintenance of Tennessee County High Schools — 
Legal Aspects 

When a County Court in Tennessee has provided for the 
establishment of a county high school or high schools, it 
has the power to levy, in addition to the state levy of five 
cents on the hundred dollars for high-school purposes, a tax 
which will not exceed fifteen cents on the hundred dollars. 
The County Court also has the power to appropriate out of 
any county funds not otherwise appropriated, excepting 
the public-school fund, and to create thus a county high- 
school fund, to be used exclusively for these schools. The 
county board of education spends these funds. The fund 
is used exclusively for county high schools. (Compilation 
of Tennessee School Laws to June 30, 1917.) 

Maintenance as it Works Out 

In the working out of these legal provisions for the main- 
tenance of county high schools of Tennessee, it is interest- 
ing to note the facts concerning their support. The report 
of Mr. Bourne, formerly High School Inspector for the 
State Department of Education, for the biennial period 
ending 1916, shows these facts (Biennial Report, Schools 
of Tennessee, 1915-1916) : The county levy, as provided 
for, not to exceed fifteen cents on the hundred dollars, 
yielded amounts among the fifty-nine counties ranging from 
$851 to $55,161, the county occupying the median position 
receiving $6,735. In addition to this fund raised by the 
county tax, there were additional county funds appropriated 
by the County Courts reported in thirteen counties. These 



38 The Administration of 

amounts range from $10 to $17,535, with the median county 
in the thirteen appropriating $1,000. Tuition is also re- 
ported in thirteen counties in amounts ranging from $28 to 
$440, tuition for the median county being $100. State 
support is reported in all fifty-nine of the counties, and 
ranges in amounts from $347 to $1,652. The inspec- 
tional mode is $1,650, twenty-nine of the fifty-nine 
counties receiving this amount. This amount is also the 
median of the distribution. The total support in the fifty- 
nine counties for county high schools has a range of from 
$1,663 to $83,772. The county occupying the median posi- 
tion in the distribution receives $8,126 for its total main- 
tenance. The total support received by all the fifty-nine 
counties is less than one-fifth the amount received from 
county levies and appropriations. 

Another illustration of the variability and other features 
embodied in the discoursive treatment may be seen in the 
following summary table: 

TABLE II 

Table Illustrating Summary of Variability and Other Features 

OP Maintenance as These Were Shown by Mr. Bourne's 

Report of Tennessee County High Schools 

Total Received 

by Fifty-Nine 

Source Ma.vimurn Minimum Median Counties 

County levy ' $55,161 $851 $6,735 $403,599 

County appropriation 17,535 10 1,000 31,377 

Tuition 440 28 100 1,590 

State 1,652 347 1,650 70,091 

Total maintenance (all sources for all counties) $679,822 

Maintenance in Type Three, Georgia County High 
Schools — Legal Basis 

Georgia law provides by amendment that the state may 
delegate to counties the right to levy tax for the main- 
tenance of high schools. (Georgia School Laws and Deci- 
sions, 1917.) Formerly the Constitution prohibited the 
county raising taxes for educational purposes other than 
elementary. This levying of a county tax is not manda- 
tory; and, according to Mr. Joseph S. Stewart, Professor 
of Secondary Education, University of Georgia, and High 
School Inspector, an imperative need is an amendment mak- 
ing it so. (Inspector's Report, Forty-Seventh Annual 
School Report, 1917.) The general state fund is appor- 
tioned to the counties on the basis of school population, 
and in turn apportioned to the several schools by the 
county board of education. The law does not specifically 
designate a basis for that apportionment, but leaves it to 
the county board to distribute according to their judgment, 
(Opinion of State Superintendent Brittain, rendered April 



County High Schools in the South 39 

26, 1911.) In Mr. Brittain's 1917 compilation of the Geor- 
gia Code no mention of "special state aids" to high schools 
could be found ; and Mr. Stewart, in the report already re- 
ferred to, mentions this as one of the urgently needed pieces 
of legislation. It is concluded that special state aids for 
such things as attendance, the number of teachers employed, 
and special subjects taught, is not extended. In brief, state 
support of high schools in Georgia seems to come from the 
general fund, county support to be optional. 

Maintenance of South Carolina County High Schools — 
Legal Provisions 

The laws of South Carolina (General School Laws of 
South Carolina, 1916) provide very definitely and very spe- 
cifically for the maintenance of county high schools. Sup- 
port is from two sources — local and state. The high-school 
laws provide that there shall be a local tax of not less than 
four mills devoted to secondary education. State support 
is supplied through a series of special state aids. One is 
based on the number of teachers employed. A school with 
two teachers shall receive not more than $500 annually; 
one with three teachers, not more than $600 ; one with more 
than three, not more than $700. A second aid is for teacher 
training. There can be only one teacher-training school in 
the county, and the maximum aid that can be extended is 
$1,000 annually. A third aid is for the teaching of agri- 
culture in consolidated schools. It is provided that when 
$750 is raised locally for this purpose the state will extend 
as a special aid an equal amount. To provide for these aids 
there was appropriated from July to December, 1916, $35,- 
000, and annually after that $80,000 is provided. For ag- 
riculture there is annually added to this $5,000. 

Laivs for the Maintenance of Virginia County High Schools 

In Virginia the fundamental basis for high-school sup- 
port seems local. This is illustrated in the support of con- 
solidated districts provided for in the laws of 1915. (Vir- 
ginia School Laws, 1915.) These are county high schools 
in the sense that they are under the county board as a unit 
of control. To maintain them, whenever the local district 
provides $250, the state will provide an equal amount. 
Should more than $200 be provided locally (up to $400), 
the state will provide an equal amount. Supplementing 
this is a series of special state aids. One is for teacher 
training, and provides for the payment of the salary of 
the instructor in teacher training by the state. (There can 
be only one teacher-training school in a county.) Another 



40 The Administration of 

special aid is for the encouragement of instruction in agri- 
culture, domestic science, and manual training in public 
high schools. These high schools, however, like the Geor- 
gia district high schools, are distributed by congressional 
districts, and hence cannot be classed as county high schools. 
For this reason both are excluded from this discussion. In 
brief, the public-school maintenance, as defined by law, 
rests upon state funds, county funds, and district funds. 

Maintenance of Maryland County High Schools 

In providing local funds for the maintenance of county 
high schools, Maryland law (Maryland Public School Laws, 
1918) provides that the county board of education, assisted 
by the county superintendents, prepare annually a budget 
for all funds required by the schools of the county. The 
board of county commissioners are then required to levy 
a tax, not to exceed forty cents on the hundred-dollar valu- 
ation, to provide this. Supplementing this is the general 
state fund, which is apportioned to the schools partly on 
the basis of aggregate attendance. Most important to the 
county high schools, though, is the additional supplement to 
these funds in the form of special state aids. To distribute 
these aids, high schools are grouped into classes, determined 
by the number of pupils enrolled, the salaries and qualifi- 
cations of principals and teachers, and the course of in- 
struction. Inspection is the basis for determining this 
classification. High schools in the first class receive $600 
annually if they meet the requirements as to principal, $300 
for each of the first three assistants, $400 for each of two 
special teachers, and $100 for each high-school teacher un- 
til total state aid received amounts to $2,500. High schools 
in the second class receive the same amount for the princi- 
pal, but $400 for only one assistant teacher, and the same 
for only one teacher of special subjects. For a third group 
of high schools which do not come up to the requirements 
for Class Two it is provided that the state will pay half the 
salaries of principal and assistant, with a maximum of 
$500 and $400 for the two state aids. In general, then, 
high-school support in Maryland is local, state, and special, 
with the last-named highly developed. 

Summary and Conclusions 

The study which has been made in the present chapter 
shows that : On the basis of maintenance there are at least 
three groups of county high schools in the South. These 
may be briefly described as : A group, where special main- 
tenance funds are employed to emphasize or develop some 



County High Schools in the South 41 

special subject; a second group, where the school is main- 
tained to supply secondary education to a portion of the 
population, usually rural, not reached by the high schools 
of the county already existing; and still a third group, 
where the high schools of the county have either developed 
under county control or, having developed, have later passed 
under county control as a step in centralization of author- 
ity. Another fact indicated by this study is that the main- 
tenance for these schools in the different states is about the 
same, but that the amount of support received from local 
sources, when compared to other sources, differs widely. 
In some of the states studied the amount of support de- 
rived from state and from local sources is approximately 
equal. In at least one other, with a flat-rate state aid, 
which distributes state aid equally to the different schools, 
there is a very wide range in the amounts of local support. 
It would be absurd to attempt to draw any conclusion from 
the wide range of variation existing in total maintenance 
received, unless the whole secondary-school situation was 
well known. A thorough analysis of the factors of secon- 
dary population, of existing facilities for support, both 
economic and social, would be necessary before such a con- 
clusion could have meaning. While this is true when the 
state extends equal aid to all counties, and yet so wide a 
variation exists in local funds, the question must inevitably 
arise: Are both procedures working toward the establish- 
ment of equality of opportunity in secondary education? 
While the time-honored policy of matching dollar for dol- 
lar between state and community may be wholly undesirable 
to meet certain conditions, there remains unanswered the 
question : Does a flat rate in state aid call forth a maximum 
of effort from the community? There should be, according 
to expert opinion on secondary education, two great guid- 
ing principles in the granting of special aids to high 
schools — (1) to as nearly as possible equalize opportunities 
within the state, and (2) to avoid an approach to that 
state of helplessness which would follow a too paternalistic 
distribution of state aid. To accomplish these things, it 
seems necessary that the aid received be directly propor- 
tional to the effort put forth. It must, of course, be said 
that effort is not measured in the absolute amount of money 
raised. Local interest, it is believed, would be increased 
by local units contributing a considerable part of the sup- 
port, and American secondary education cannot afford to 
lose that interest. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

Distribution and Administration of County High 

Schools 

Maintenance as a Basis for the Distribution of County 
High Schools 

The preceding chapter discussed rather in detail the sup- 
port extended to county high schools. The legal basis for 
that maintenance was emphasized, since the development 
of any system of schools seems primarily dependent on the 
provisions made for their maintenance. If this is true for 
school systems in general, it would seem to be especially 
true of any special development in the system. No mat- 
ter how carefully or how elaborately a project in educa- 
tional administration is planned, its development and its 
distribution must be conditioned by the effectiveness of the 
provision included for its support. It would seem plau- 
sible that a flat rate of state support to the counties would 
at least result in a distribution that would bring one school 
to each county. It might seem, on the other hand, that 
state support, which could be secured only by the county 
"matching dollars," might conceivably result in putting the 
aid out of reach of some counties. To offset this is the spur 
to local incentive. An aid that calls for answering effort 
on the part of the county should result in a greater local 
interest and endeavor than one which does not. The only 
question, it seems, would be: Are there many cases where 
to raise a stipulated sum means many times the effort to 
one county that it does to another, even if it is economically 
possible for all counties concerned? Does such a question 
tend to equalize educational opportunity among the several 
counties? On the other hand, could this answering effort 
on the part of the county come in other terms than those of 
dollars? Cannot the richer counties of the state afford to 
contribute to the education of the children of less wealthy 
counties if they are only sure that these counties are put- 
ting forth all efforts to make the most from these aids? 
Surely if the purpose of education is to benefit the society 
of the state, they can. If this effort is made in securing 
the largest attendance from the largest per cent of the 
school population, the local interest could be secured with- 
out incurring the danger of the bar of economic inability. 
In some of the states a total day's attended unit has been 
employed. (Missouri School Laws, 1913.) In either case 



County High Schools in the South 43 

the effort called for is not economic. All of these methods 
of apportionment of maintenance are illustrated in the pre- 
ceding chapter. The present chapter will study the distri- 
bution of schools under the several plans of support. 

Method of Studying Distribution 

For the study of distribution the same classification of 
schools will be used that was used in the last chapter. For 
convenience, the small group of Kentucky county high 
schools, the Mississippi agricultural high schools, and the 
farm-life high schools of North Carolina will be considered 
as constituting group one ; the schools of Alabama, Florida, 
Louisiana, and Tennessee will form a second group ; and 
the schools of Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Maryland, 
and Virginia will make up the third. In studying the dis- 
tribution of schools, the number of schools per state will be 
sought, the number per county, and the units of area and 
of population each represents. In addition to distribution, 
the administrative organization, including control and plan 
of supervision, will be studied. 

Kentucky County High Schools — Their Administration 

The legal control of county high schools in Kentucky is 
vested in the county board of education. The first right — 
that of establishment — is in the county board. It also hires 
and fixes the salaries of the high-school teachers, and it 
fixes the course of study to be pursued, provided that the 
course be up to the standard prescribed by the State Board 
of Education. The State Board of Education prepares the 
course of study for first-class high schools. A first-class 
high school is one that maintains a four-year course of 
study, the one prescribed by the State Board of Education ; 
a second-class high school maintains, legally, three years 
of the prescribed four-year course; and a third-class high 
school maintains two years of the same course. (Common 
School Laws of Kentucky, 1918, p. 109.) The officers of 
administration are the officers of these two boards. The 
county superintendent is chairman ex officio of the county 
board of education, as well as its most active officer; the 
officers of the State Department who are officers of the 
state board are others ; and the State High School Inspector, 
from the state university, another. In the organization of 
administration the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, who is chairman of the State Board of Education, is 
at the head. Below him — or, really, to one side — is the 
Inspector of High Schools. Since this officer is really Pro- 
fessor of Secondary Education in the university at Lexing- 



44 The Administration of 

ton, he is in a real sense independent of the State Depart- 
ment. Just below the high-school board, in direct line, is 
the county board. Since the county superintendent is its 
chairman, he is next below the state superintendent. How- 
ever, since both positions are elective, the question can very 
fairly be asked : Is the plan of organization a very definite 
one? Local administration is in a high-school principal. 

Their Supervision 

Outside of local supervision, the plan of coordination for 
these county high schools is worked out through a State In- 
spector of High Schools. The inspector officially is Pro- 
fessor of Secondary Education in the University of Ken- 
tucky, As a high-school supervisor, he is, in the language 
of the report, "through the generosity of the general edu- 
cation board." The office was estabhshed in 1911. The 
plan of supervision employed is most briefly described as 
inspection. (Kentucky School Report, 1917, p. 23, Intro- 
duction.) 

Their Distribution 

It was the very evident intent of the law which estab- 
lished county high schools in Kentucky to place one first- 
class high school within reach of every child in the state, in 
the sense, at least, of having one in his own county. The 
law states that "within two years after the passage of this 
Act there shall be established by the county board of educa- 
tion in each county one or more county high schools," the 
only exception being in the case of a county already possess- 
ing a first-class high school. The progress in the distribu- 
tion of these county high schools since their establishment 
in 1910 has been, in the language of Mr. McHenry Rhoads, 
"phenomenal." (Kentucky School Report, p. 211.) There 
were 271 county high schools up to July, 1917. The ma- 
jority of these are in reality contracts with existing city 
high schools, as provided by the law. There were at the 
time of the report less than fifty high schools which were 
under the entire control of the county boards and supported 
entirely by county funds. The following table shows the 
distribution of county high schools by counties : 



County High Schools in the South 45 

TABLE III. 

Table Showing Distribution of County High Schools in Ken- 
tucky, Classified by Year Lengths of Their Programs 

FOUR-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS THREE-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS TWO-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS 

No. of No. of No. of 

No. of Counties No. of Counties No. of Cotmties 

High Schools Having High Schools Having High Schools Having 

Per County This No. Per County This No. Per County This No. 

5 1 3 " 1 4 3 

4 8 2 2 3 2 

3 9 1 15 1 23 
2 28 
1 57 

(Compiled from data included on pp. 195-211, Kentucky School Report, 1917) 

As shown by these tables, there are 177 four-year county 
high schools in Kentucky. (A four-year school, first-class ; 
three-year school, second-class ; and two-year school, third 
class, by Kentucky State Laws.) The number of three-year 
schools, twenty-two, is relatively small, while there are 
forty-one two-year schools. The type is, however, predom- 
inantly, the four-year school. This is accounted for in a 
large part by the plan of the county board contracting with 
the existing first-class high schools, whereby the existing 
school becomes a county high school. In the distribution of 
first-class high schools by counties, both the median num- 
ber per county and the number of schools per county which 
occurs most often is one. As noted, there are twenty-eight 
counties with two first-class high schools each. 

North Carolina County High Schools — Their 
Administration 

The North Carolina law which establishes farm-life high 
schools states: "There shall be established in each county 
which complies with the provisions of this Act a school to 
be known as the 'county farm-life high school.' " (County 
Farm Life School Law, Public School Law of North Car- 
olina, 1917.) But as the law is only mandatory, as far as 
those electing to comply with it are concerned, this group 
of county high schools is really on a local-option basis. 
Their control is in the hands of a special board appointed 
by the county board, one from each township. The county 
superintendent is ex-officio member of this board. At the 
head of the administrative organization of this group of 
schools is the State Board of Education, which must pass 
upon the organization of the school before it becomes eligi- 
ble to receive any state funds. 

In addition to this group of high schools. North Carolina 
law provides for at least two other groups of high 
schools, which are county high schools. In one group the 
county board is privileged, with the consent of the State 



46 The Administration of 

Board of Education, to establish and maintain not more 
than four public high schools receiving state aid and espe- 
cially intended to promote teacher training. The county 
board appoints a committee of three who constitute a spe- 
cial committee to administer this school. The schools are 
strictly under state supervision, the teachers being required 
to hold certificates from the State Board of Examiners. 
The organization of administrative authority is in direct 
line. At the head is the State Superintendent as secretary 
of the state board. Below and at one side is the State In- 
spector of High Schools. This office is placed to one side 
of the direct organization, since officially the State High 
School Inspector is Professor of Secondary Education in 
the state university. Directly beneath the state board in 
authority is the county board of education, appointed. This 
board appoints the county superintendent, and also the spe- 
cial committee who administers these schools. 

A second group of high schools provided for county rural 
high schools. Any township, with the approval of the 
county board, may vote a special high-school tax and estab- 
lish a rural high school. A committee of three, as in the 
other group^ referred to, is appointed by the county board, 
and the administrative organization is parallel to that of the 
first group. This group, instead of being organized on 
township lines, may be organized on community lines with- 
out regard to township lines. Still another group is that of 
the town and city high schools already existing. 

North Carolina County High Schools — Their Distribution 

Up to November, 1917, there were throughout the state 
twenty-one farm-life schools. These are distributed among 
eighteen counties, as follows (Tenth Annual Report, State 
Inspector of High Schools, North Carolina, 1917) : 

TABLE IV. 

Showing Distribution by Counties of North Carolina Farm-Life 

High Schools 

No. of Farm-Life County High No. of Counties Having 
Schools Per Countv This No. 

2 " 3 

1 15 

The second group of high schools, designated as "rural 
schools" in the report, with ninety-five counties reporting 
high schools, shows 100 four-year high schools, 63 three- 
year high schools, and 16 two-year high schools. 



County High Schools in the South 47 

TABLE V 

Showing Distribution by Counties of Rural High Schools in 
North Carolina 



FOUR-YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


THREE-YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


TWO-YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


No. Schools No. Counties 


No. Schools No. Counties 


No. Schools 


No. Counties 


Per County 


Having 


Per County 


Having 


Per County 


Having 


4 


2 


3 


2 


2 


2 


3 


8 


2 


10 


1 


12 


2 


26 


1 


37 






1 


42 











(Compiled from Table III, Tenth Annual Report, High School Inspector, North 
Carolina, 1917) 

The median number which occurs most often of first- 
class high schools per county is seen to be 1. There are, 
however, twenty-six counties having two schools per county. 
(Median computed on number of counties showing schools.) 

Mississippi County High Schools — Their Administration 

The administration of the Mississippi county agricultural 
high schools is primarily in the hands of a special board of 
five supervisors, four of whom are appointed (School Laws 
of the State of Mississippi, 1917), while the fifth is the 
county superintendent ex officio. Over this board is, first, 
the county board of education, and over it the State Board 
of Education. This last-named board decides when the 
school has complied with the provisions of the law estab- 
lishing these schools and is entitled to state aid. The State 
Superintendent, appointed by the Governor and ex-officio 
chairman of the State Board of Education, is at the head 
of the administrative organization. In addition to these 
high schools, there is a group of separate districts, 232 in 
number, which have the privilege of giving high-school in- 
struction. These are under control of a board of five trus- 
tees, who are appointed by the mayor of the municipality. 
This board appoints its superintendent of schools and other 
administrative officers and, in general, administers the af- 
fairs of the separate districts. Over them is the state 
board, the system of state inspection, and the state super- 
intendent. A third group of schools which have the priv- 
ilege of giving high-school instruction is the school in the 
consolidated district. The administrative organization of 
these schools does not differ materially from that of the 
other groups. Each school has its board of trustees, with 
powers and duties closely similar to those of trustees of 
separate districts. The upper portions of the hierarchy 
of administration are the same, except that state supervi- 
sion is under a special supervisor of rural and consolidated 
schools. Supervision of all three groups is of two kinds — 
local and state. There is no real intermediate type. Lo- 



48 '■■" The Administration of 

cal supervision is through the administrative officers of the 
school and the county superintendent; state supervision is 
through specially appointed officers and the Department of 
Secondary Education of the University of Mississippi. It 
can best be described as inspection. 

Mississippi County High Schools — Their Distribution 

There are in Mississippi 289 consohdated districts, all 
of which may add high schools, the same as in special school 
districts. Many of the number have already done so. (Bul- 
letin No. 10, Part I, State Department of Public Education, 
Mississippi, "Consolidation of Schools and Transportation 
of Pupils," by J. T. Calhoun.) The range in the distribu- 
tion of schools is shown in the accompanying table. While 
there are as many as eighteen schools in one county and 
sixteen in another, the median point is seen to be 3.5 schools, 
or the median number of schools simply 3. 

TABLE VI 

Showing Distribution of Consolidated Schools in Mississippi 
BY Counties 

No. Consolidated Schools Per County Frequencies 

18 1 

16 1 

12 1 

11 1 

10 2 

9 2 

8 3 

7 5 

6 2 

5 4 

4 9 

3 9 

2 10 

1 12 

County agricultural high schools show the following dis- 
tribution: There are forty-four agricultural county high 
schools and three additional in course of construction. 
(September, 1916, Bulletin No. 10, Part II, "County Agri- 
cultural High Schools," W. H. Walker, State Superintend- 
ent, Pubhc Education, Mississippi.) As there are eighty- 
two counties in the state, and as the law provides that in 
the distribution of these schools there may be two schools 
per county (one for each race), there are yet almost half 
the counties having no county high schools. In at least one 
case an agricultural high school serves two counties, which 
is one of the features provided for in the law. This group 
of schools will be much more fully discussed in the next 
chapter. 



County High Schools in the South 49 

Alabama County High Schools- — Their Administration . 

The law which provides for the county high schools in 
Alabama (General Public School Laws of Alabama, 1915, 
Article 20) provides that these high schools shall be con- 
trolled by a state high-school commission and the county 
board of education. The commission consists of the Gov- 
ernor, Auditor, and State Superintendent of Education. 
The county board of education consists of four members, 
appointed by the chairman of the board of trustees, and 
the county superintendent ex officio. The county superin- 
tendent is the chief executive officer of the county board, 
and is the individual chiefly responsible for all the regula- 
tions relating to the board. Specifically the laws provide 
every action of the county board, subject to the approval 
of the high-school commission, which, in effect, central- 
izes the administration of these high schools in the State 
Department of Education. In the administration of these 
schools the state high-school commission provides the 
course of study and must approve the one used by any 
school. 

Alabama County High Schools — Their Supervision 

The state high-school commission, in providing for the 
supervision of the county high schools, outside the local 
supervision performed by the administrative officers of 
the schools and the county superintendent, has joined the 
agricultural high school board, which is responsible for the 
nine district agricultural high schools, in employing a high- 
school supervisor, who gives his whole attention to these 
two schools. This plan was in operation about one year, 
but was discontinued, and the schools have been without 
supervision since. 

Alabama County High Schools — Their Distribution 

The county high-school law provides that the high-school 
commission shall locate one county high school in each of 
the sixty-seven counties in the state. There are, however, 
certain provisions to be complied with in providing ap- 
proved sites and equipment, which may be one cause of de- 
laying the establishment of schools in some of the counties. 
(Mobile County, by special legislative provision, is not in- 
cluded in the county high-school program.) There are 
fifty-seven counties which have established county high 
schools. 



50 The Administi^ation of 

Other County High Schools — Their Distribution 

Besides these fifty-seven county high schools, there are 
nine district agricultural secondary schools and the sep- 
arate district or city high schools of the state. (By legis- 
lative enactment any city of more than 2,000 population is 
under the city board of education ; any city under that is 
controlled by the county board of education.) 

Louisiana Parish High Schools — Their Administration 

Louisiana provides (Public School Laws of Louisiana, 
1916, p. 116) that any parish board shall have authority to 
establish schools as are necessary to provide "adequate 
school facilities" for the children of the parish. With the 
sanction of the Board of Education (a board of five mem- 
bers, appointed by the Governor, and the State Superin- 
tendent, ex officio, secretary of the board), central or high 
schools may be established where necessary. In admin- 
istrative organization, this board, with its secretary the 
most active member, stands at the head. Its administra- 
tive plans are carried out by the parish school superintend- 
ents and the parish boards. 

Louisiana Parish High Schools — Their Supervision 

A special group of agricultural high schools is under 
an inspector of agricultural high schools. Departments of 
"Domestic Economy" are supervised by the Professor of 
Home Economics at the University of Louisiana. Other 
high schools are supervised by the State Inspector of High 
Schools. This work seems a combination of supervision 
and inspection. 

Louisiana Parish High Schools — Their Distribution 

In fifty-seven parishes reporting there are 181 high 
schools. Of these, 95 employ wagon drivers for the trans- 
portation of pupils. These schools are distributed as shown 
in the accompanying table : 

TABLE VII 
Showing Distribution of Consolidated High Schools by Parishes 

A^o. Consolidated High Schools Per Parish No. Parishes Having 

8 1 

■7 3 

6 2 

5 6 

4 S 

3 16 

2 14 

1 10 



County High Schools in the South 51 

TABLE VIII 
Showing Distribution of Other High Schools by Parishes 

No. High Schools Per Parish No. Parishes Having 

8 1 

6 2 

5 ■ 2 

4 2 
3 6 

2 8 

1 16 

The median number of high schools per parish is three. 
The median number of consohdated schools (schools eni- 
ploying transportation as shown by Annual Report, Louisi- 
ana High Schools, p. 52, Table of High School Statistics) 
is two. The consolidated schools are included in the first 
table above. 

Of the state-approved agricultural high schools, there are, 
in group one, thirteen schools, distributed in eleven coun- 
ties, all but one of which have one only agricultural high 
school. Of the type-two schools, thirty-eight are distrib- 
uted as shown. (Data furnished by C. A. Ives, High 
School Inspector, Louisiana State Department of Educa- 
tion.) Domestic-science schools, some of which are de- 
partments of schools not on the state-approved list of high 
schools, but most of which are located in approved high 
schools, are distributed as shown : 

TABLE IX 
Showing Distribution of Agricultural High Schools Per Parish 

AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCTIOOLS 

Schools Per Parish No. Parishes Having 

8 1 

7 1 

6 1 

3 1 

2 • 4 

1 28 

TABLE X. 

Showing Distribution of Domestic Economy High School 
Departments by Parishes 

DOMESTIC SCIENCE DEPARTMENT 

Departments Per Parish No. Parishes Having 
11 1 

7 4 
6 4 

5 3 

4 4 

3 12 

2 12 
1 17 

With only thirty-four parishes reporting agricultural hig-h 
schools, the median number (undistributed) of domestic 
science departments per parish is seen to be two (median 
computed on number of parishes showing four-year' 



52 The Administration of 

schools), with fifty-seven parishes reporting departments. 
(Data furnished by C. A. Ives, State High School Inspec- 
tor.) There are altogether 185 state-approved four-year 
high schools in the state, distributed among the parishes 
as shown. The median (undistributed) number of approved 
high schools is three, as follows : 

TABLE XL 
Showing Distribution of Approved High Schools by Parishes 

STATE-APPROVED HIGH SCHOOLS 

No. Schools Per Parish • No. Parishes Having 

8 1 

7 3 

6 4 

S 6 

4 4 

3 17 

2 14 
1 9 

Florida County High Schools — Their Administration 

■ County high schools in Florida are established by county 
boards of education, wherever the advancement and the 
number of pupils require them. (Digest of the School 
Laws of the State of Florida, p. 19.) To administer and to 
regulate these high schools are the following authorities: 
The county board of three, who are appointed, elect all 
teachers and the principal and administer the affairs of 
these schools locally. The county superintendent of educa- 
tion, who is an officer in the Department of Public Instruc- 
tion, is next in order in the administrative organization. 
Above the county superintendent is the high-school com- 
mission of from six to ten persons, one-third of whom are 
heads of institutions of higher learning and one-third high- 
school principals, appointed by the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, whose duty it is to prepare a course of 
study for the county high schools of the state. Above this 
commission is the State Superintendent of Instruction, who 
has "general charge and oversight of all matters pertaining 
to the public schools." ' The State Board of Education, of 
which the State Superintendent is secretary, can hardly be 
said to be above the superintendent, as it does not elect him 
and is an ex-officio body. 

Their Supervision 

A system of local supervision, partly under the direction 
of the county superintendent and partly under the Univer- 
sity of Florida, is provided by the county board of educa- 
tion, who may appoint county agents. This supervision is 
of the special subjects — agriculture and home economics. 



County High Schools in the South 53 

In addition to this is the supervision and inspection of the 
county superintendent and the system of state inspection 
provided by the University of Florida through its professor- 
ship of secondary education. While the inspection is car- 
ried on by the state university, state law (Laws of Florida, 
Chapter 5382) prescribes the classes of high schools and 
suggests the regulations governing this classification. 

Their Distribution 

The law establishing county high schools, already re- 
ferred to, provides for their distribution wherever justified 
by the number of pupils of sufficient advancement. This 
makes the unit not directly one of area, but one of high- 
school population. In the working out of this distribution 
of the high schools some facts are shown in the accompa- 
nying tables. (Biennial Report, Superintendent Public In- 
struction, State of Florida, 1916.) In the fifty-two coun- 
ties listed by the inspector's report (Report of Dr. John A, 
Thackston for 1915-1916), showing four-year high schools, 
the distribution is as follows : 

TABLE XII 

Showing Distribution of Florida High Schools by Counties, 
Also by Year-Length Programs 

FOUR-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS THREE-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS TWO-YEAR HIGH SCHOOLS 

No. Per No. Counties No. Per No. Counties No. Per No. Counties 

County Having County Having County Having 

5 1 3 2 4 " 2 

4 1 2 1 3 1 

3 4 18 2 1 

2 7 1 in 

1 29 

There are twelve counties among the fifty-two which re- 
port no four-year high schools. The median (median com- 
puted on the number of counties having four-year high 
schools) number four-year high schools per county is one. 
This is also the mode, there being twenty-nine counties hav- 
ing only one four-year high school. There is a total of 
sixty-five four-year high schools. There are sixteen three- 
year high schools in eleven counties. There are twenty-one 
two-year high schools in fourteen counties. 

Tennessee County High Schools — Their Administration 

The management and control of the county high schools 
in Tennessee is legally (Tennessee School Laws, June 30, 
1917) vested in the county high school board of education. 
This board is composed of six members, elected by the 
County Court, and the county superintendent, ex officio. 
This board has the power to locate these schools, hire the 



54 The Administration of 

teachers, and, in general, exercise such duties as the dis- 
trict boards of directors exercised in respect to the district 
schools. It may establish schools outright or may contract 
with existing schools, as in the case of the Kentucky schools, 
to give the county high-school instruction. When a con- 
tract of this kind is made, however, it is specifically pro- 
vided that the administrative authority of the county and 
state educational authorities shall be as complete as in the 
county high school proper. Above this board and the 
county superintendent is the State Department of Educa- 
tion, with the High School Inspector representing the State 
Superintendent and the State Board of Education. The 
State Superintendent is appointed by the Governor, and is 
ex-officio secretary to the board. The nine members of the 
state board are likewise appointed by the Governor. The 
schools are classified by stature as first, second, and third- 
grade high schools, the classification being based on the 
number of years required for graduation and the number 
of teachers employed. The course of study is prescribed 
by the State Board of Education. 

Tennessee County High Schools — Their Supervision 

State supervision of county high schools in Tennessee is 
from two sources. Both would perhaps be denominated as 
inspection. One is conducted by the state university 
through the professorship of secondary education ; the 
other, through the State High School Inspector, who is an 
appointed member of the State Department of Education 
and who gives all his time to the work of inspection. Two 
bases of approval are in operation. One is on the regula- 
tions prescribed by the State Department of Education, and 
is state approval ; the other is on the basis prescribed by 
the Southern Commission of Accredited Schools, which 
closely approximates the regulations prescribed by the 
North Central Association. The former approval is the 
basis of apportionment of state funds, the latter being more 
often the basis of college entrance. 

Their Distribution 

Whenever a County Court decides that the interest of the 
public demands it, it has full authority to establish and 
maintain one or as many county high schools as it deems 
necessary. The matter of distribution thus is left to local 
initiative. 

The distribution of county high schools among the fifty- 
nine counties reporting those schools is illustrated by the 



County High Schools in the South 55 

following tables, which show the number of schools by coun- 
ties. The tables show first, second, and third-class schools 
separately, as in preceding tables. 

TABLE XIII 

Showing Distribution of Tennessee County High Schools by 
Counties and Classified by Year Lengths of Programs 

FOUR-YEAR SCHOOLS THREE-YEAR SCHOOLS TWO-YEAR SCHOOLS 

No. Schools No. Counties No. Schools No. Counties No. Schools No. Counties 

Per County Having Per County Having Per County Having 

6 2 5 1 9 2 

4 1 3 2 6 1 

3 3 2 7 5 3 

2 4 1 13 4*4 

1 29 3 2 

2 2 

1 8 

(Compiled from data included in Mr. Bourne's Report of County High Schools, in- 
cluded in Tennessee Biennial School Report, 1915-1916) 

There were seventy-two first-class county high schools, 
distributed among the fifty-nine counties. There are, how- 
ever, sixteen counties shown in the report having no county 
high schools of the first class. The median number of first- 
class schools among the counties having them is twenty- 
nine, which is also the mode. Among the number having 
them, the median number of second-class schools is one. 
The median number of third-class schools is three. 

Georgia County High Schools — Their Organization 

The legal provisions for the organization of Georgia 
county high schools must be sought, not as a chapter set out 
by specific legislation applying to them only, but by impli- 
cations in articles whose primary subject is not high schools. 
To illustrate, each county shall comprise one school district, 
and shall be confided to the care and control of the county 
board of education. (Georgia School Laws, Acts 1887, p. 
71.) This board consists of five members, and is selected 
by the grand jury of the county. It has in another chap- 
ter been noted that a constitutional amendment makes pos- 
sible the voting of a county tax for secondary as well as for 
elementary school purposes. The general administration 
of the schools of the county is in the hands of this board, 
and the county superintendent, who is an elective officer, 
having supervision over all the schools of the county. Over 
him, in order, comes the State Inspector of High Schools, 
the State Superintendent, and the State Board of Education. 
The state board consists of four members, besides the State 
Superintendent and the Governor, who are appointed by the 
Governor. 



56 



The Administration of 



Georgia County High Schools — Their Supervision 

Local supervision, outside the officers of the school itself, 
is in the hands of the county superintendent, who is re- 
quired by law (Georgia School Law, 1917) to visit every 
school in his district every sixty days and to familiarize 
himself with the work being done. There are in the State 
Department of Education three special supervisors, ap- 
pointed by the State Superintendent, whose special duty 
it is to give special instruction in county normals, but whose 
additional duty it is to aid in the general supervision and 
inspection«of the schools in such a way as the superintendent 
of schools may direct. In addition to these is the state sys- 
tem of inspection, of accrediting, and of classification of 
high schools carried on through the Professor of Secondary 
Education at the state university. 

Their Distribution 

The distribution of county high schools, as shown in the 
High School Inspector's last report (Table No. II, Report 
of Joseph S. Stewart, Professor of Secondary Education, 
Forty-Sixth Annual Report, Georgia, 1917), among the 124 
counties reporting, is illustrated in the following tables : 





TABLE 


XIV 




Showing Distribution of Georgia High Schools 
Classified by Number of Grades 


BY Counties. 


TWELVE GRADES 


ELEVEN GRADES 




TEN GRADES 


NINE GRADES 


No. 
Schools No. 

Per Counties 
Cottnty Having 
1 10 


No. 
Schools No. 

Per Counties 

County Having 

3 ' 2 

2 IS 

1 75 




No. 

Schools No. 
Per Counties 

County Having 
4 1 
3 2 
1 41 ■ 


No. 

Schools No. 
Per Counties 

County Having 
2 " 1 
1 18 



In designating these high schools, they are designated as 
"twelve grades," "eleven grades," etc., as they were so des- 
ignated by Mr. Stewart. The eleven-year schools can be 
considered four-year high schools when built upon seven 
years' elementary work. The typical number of the eleven- 
year schools is one per county in the counties having them. 
It will be observed that a large majority of the counties 
have at least one of these schools, while fifteen counties 
have two of them. The ten-grade school is pretty widely 
distributed, being found in nearly half the counties. There 
is a much smaller distribution of ninth-grade schools. 



County High Schools in the South 57 

South Carolina County High Schools — Their 
Administration 

The administrative organization of South CaroHna con- 
sists of a state board and state superintendent, a system 
of inspection, a county board of education, a county super- 
intendent, and a board of district trustees. As to real 
county high schools, the existing county high schools are 
county high schools only in the sense that they are under 
the county board's supervision, and the county board ap- 
points the district trustees. An approach to what is more 
nearly county high schools, in the sense it has been dis- 
cussed in the previous discussions, has been made in the 
consolidated rural graded schools. 

According to the State Rural Inspector (facts furnished 
by Mr. Lueco Gunter, Rural School Supervisor), these con- 
solidated high schools, because of state aid, are developing 
rapidly. A group of three or more of these consolidated 
schools are encouraged to establish central high schools, 
providing one high school shall do the work of the several 
graded schools. Any graded school employing five or more 
teachers is encourageid to organize as a high school. Recent 
legislation which permits the State Board of Education to 
give to these schools double the appropriation which other 
schools receive (Legislative Acts, 1919) is doing much to 
encourage this centralization. 

Their Distribution 

Treating as high schools all these graded schools which 
have students enrolled above grade seven, which is the num- 
ber of grades constituting the elementary schools in the 
state, the tables given illustrate the distribution of these 
schools. It must be said that this is an arbitrary definition 
of high school, and is not the one recognized by the De- 
partment of Education in the administration of state aid. 
In using this definition, no heed is given to the number of 
pupils enrolled in the particular grades. A school having 
eleven grades organized as such, even though there is only 
one person in the eleventh grade, is classed as a four-year 
high school. (The State Department requires a minimum 
number of pupils before granting state aid.) 

Out of forty-five counties reporting, the distribution is 
shown by : 



58 



The Adfriinistration of 



TABLE XV. 

Showing Distribution of South Carolina High Schools, Distrib- 
uted BY Counties and Classified as to Year 
Length of Programs 



FOUR-YEAR SCHOOLS 


THREE-YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


TWO-YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


No. No. Coun- 


No. 


No. Cdun- 


No. ■ 


No. Coun- 


Per County ties Having 


Per Countv t 


lies Having 


Per Countv 


ties Having 


1 9 


21 


2 


17 


1 




15 


2 


12 


1 




12 


1 


11 


1 




10 


2 


10 


2 




9 


2 


9 


1 




8 


1 


8 


2 




7 


2 


7 


2 




6 


4 


6 


3 




5 


5 


5 


6 




4 


7 


4 


6 




3 


3 


3 


6 




2 


6 


2 


2 ^ 




1 


7 


1 


6 




TABLE 


XVI 






Showing 


Distribution of Rural High 


Schools 




No. Rural High Schools Receiv 


ing 






Stat 


e Aid Per County 
8 


No. Counties Having 
2 






7 
6 


1 

1 








5 


1 








4 
3' 


5 
9 







2 17 

1 6 

(Compiled from data in Table XVIII, Fifteenth Annual Report, State Superintend- 
ent, South Carolina) 

The last table shows the conflict between the definition of 
"high school" as used above and that used by the state 
board. This table shows the distribution of state-aided 
high schools per county, without any attention to the classi- 
fication of the school. Using, however, the definition al- 
ready referred to, the three-year high school is seen to be 
the favorite one, and the median (undistributed) number 
per county of the counties having them is seen to be four. 
There are also a large number of the tenth-grade schools, 
the median number per county being four. The median 
number of high schools per county recognized by the State 
Department in the administration of state aid is two. The 
total number of such schools is 130. The number of exist- 
ing state-aided high schools per county is illustrated in the 
following table: 



County High Schools in the South 59 

TABLE XVII 

Showing Distribution of State-Aided High Schools in 
South Carolina 

No. High Schools Per Coitnty 

Receiving State Aid No. Counties Having This No. 

8 2 

7 1 

6 1 

5 2 

4 5 

3 8 

2 17 

1 6 

In a total of 126 schools among forty-three counties the 
median number per county is two, the range being from 1 
to 8. 

Virginia County High Schools — Their Administration 

County high schools in Virginia are in much the same ad- 
ministrative category as are those just described in South 
Carolina. They are county high schools only in the sense 
that they are under the general supervision of the county 
board of education. The organization of administrative 
authority in Virginia places the highest authority in the 
State Board of Education of six members, three of whom 
are ex ofRcio (among whom is the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction), and three others of whom are elected 
by the Senate from the faculties of higher education in the 
state-supported institutions. Under this board is the State 
Department of Education. Under this department, and 
owning as its source of appointment and power the State 
Board of Education, are the division superintendents over 
several counties. Next in order is the county board, con- 
sisting of the division superintendent and the district school 
trustees. Parallel with this board is another county board 
of three members, one of whom is the division superintend- 
ent, whose duty it is to appoint the district trustee, the low- 
est office in the administrative hierarchy. On these last- 
named officers falls the local administration of all district 
schools. (Virginia School Laws, 1915.) 

Their Supervision 

In the supervision of Virginia high schools there is, of 
course, that supervision supplied by local administrative 
officers and what supervision may come from division su- 
perintendents. In addition, the state is attempting a 
rather comprehensive scheme of state supervision, which 
is carried out by volunteer work from institutions of higher 
learning in the state. Realizing the futility of being able 



60 The Administration of 

to do more than inspect, the State Inspector of High Schools 
and the Professor of Secondary Education in the Univer- 
sity of Virginia have supplemented their own work with 
the assistance of heads of education from the five state 
normal schools. (William and Mary College is included as 
one of the five normal schools.) (Annual Report, Public 
High Schools, Virginia, 1917-1918.) 

Their Distribution 

In discussing the distribution of Virginia high schools, 
all high schools which are not classified as city high schools 
are given as county high schools. While city high schools 
bear much the same relation to county boards, they are 
placed in a separate table. Distribution is seen in the fol- 
lowing table: 

TABLE XVIII 

Showing Distribution of Virginia High Schools by Counties, 
Classified as Accredited and Unaccredited 

No. Accredited No. Unaccredited High Schools, but 

High Schools No. Counties ~ ' 

Per Coiintv Having 

8 " 1 

7 1 

6 2 

5 2 

4 S 

3 9 

2 15 

1 28 

The median number of accredited high schools in the 
counties represented is seen to be two. Accompanying it 
is a median of two unapproved high schools in the same 
counties (undistributed median). Twenty counties have 
more than two accredited schools, while one county has 
seven and another has eight. There is a total of 169 ac- 
credited schools in the ninety-four counties listed. Six of 
these ninety-four have no high schools. In addition to the 
160 accredited schools, there are 145 unapproved schools 
doing 12 or more units of work. There are further distrib- 
uted among these counties 217 high schools doing less than 
12 units work. There are twenty-three accredited city high 
schools, two unaccredited, and five doing less than 12 units 
work. (These five include the Richmond Junior High 
School.) Altogether, there is a total of 552 high schools in 
the state. 

Maryland County High Schools — Their Administration 

Maryland trusts all her educational matters which affect 
the state to a State Department of Education (Maryland 
Public School Laws, 1918), at the head of which is a State 



'oing 12 Units or More 


N'o. Counties 


Work. Per County 


Having 


7 


1 


6 


1 


5 


2 


4 


S 


3 


11 


2 


24 


1 


33 



County High Schools in the South 61 

Board of Education. This board consists of seven ap- 
pointed members. Beneath this state board directly, in ad- 
ministrative authority, is a county board, appointed also 
by the Governor ; and beneath it a district board, appointed 
by the county board. The state board appoints a state 
superintendent ; the county board, a county superintendent. 
The organization of authority is very clearly cut, delegated 
from above downward in each case, with the duties clearly 
specified. The local board is responsible for minor mat- 
ters, but the real local control and administration of county 
high schools is in the hands of a county board and its ap- 
pointee, the superintendent. 

Supervision of These Schools 

Local supervision of county high schools is supplied 
through the local school officers of the individual schools 
and the county superintendent. For its part of the super- 
vision of high schools the State Department is provided with 
a Supervisor of High Schools, who has supervision of all 
schools above the seventh grade. The supervision of these 
schools is a combination of supervision and inspection. 

Distribution 

The county board of education may, with the consent of 
the state superintendent, establish high schools whenever 
in their judgment it is necessary to do so. The distribu- 
tion of the county high school as it works out by counties 
and by groups, first and second class, is shown by the fol- 
lowing tables taken from data in the High School Inspec- 
tor's report. (Fifty-First Annual Report, State Board of 
Education, Maryland.) 

TABLE XIX 

Showing Distribution of Maryland County High Schools 
approved county high schools 

FIRST GROUP SECOND GROUP 

No. Per County No. Counties Having No. Per County No. Counties Havina 

4 2 4 3 

3 2 3 5 

2 1 2 5 

1 14 1 5 

(High schools of the first group have not less than eighty pupils enrolled and sev- 
enty average attendance, have not less than four teachers, and do not less than four 
years of work) 

In nineteen counties showing high schools of the first 
group the median and the mode of the counties shown are 
each one. The range of the approved high schools of the 
first group is from one to four per county, with more than 
two-thirds of the counties showing one school per county. 
The median number of schools per county of the second 



62 The Administr'ation of 

group (in the counties shown) is two, with more than half 
of the counties having two or more such schools, while a 
third have three or more. There are thirty high schools of 
the first group and forty-two of the second, making a total 
of seventy-two approved high schools. 

Texas High Schools — Their Administration 

At the head of the administrative organization of Texas 
is a state board of four ex-officio members, the State Su- 
perintendent being ex-officio secretary. Just below it is the 
State Department of Education, including the State Super- 
visor of High Schools. Beneath the State Department is 
the county board of trustees, five in number, elected one 
from the county at large and one from each district. (Out of 
250 Texas counties, 112 have an ex-officio county superin- 
tendent, meaning a County Judge, who is also county super- 
intendent.) Below the county board is the district board of 
trustees, elected by the people of the district. The county 
board of trustees is the important board from the high- 
school standpoint, as it combines districts for the formation 
of high schools, and, in session with the district trustees, it 
settles "questions dealing with the location of high schools, 
the teaching of high-school subjects, and matters pertaining 
to their classification." (Public School Laws of the State 
of Texas, 1915.) The educational executive of the county 
is the county superintendent. ' 

Texas High Schools — Their Supervision 

High schools in Texas are under the supervision, locally, 
of the county board, the county superintendent, and the 
administrative officers of each individual school. State su- 
pervision is organized under the State Department of Edu- 
cation. Up until the last two or three years it was under 
the direction of the Professor of Secondary Education of 
the University of Texas. It consists of a system of inspec- 
tion and classification rather than supervision in a broad 
sense. The different types in the classification are fixed by 
law. In carrying into effect this classification, there is a 
committee, composed of a representative from the Depart- 
ment of Education, one from the University of Texas, one 
from the Agricultural and Mechanical College, one from 
the College of Industrial Arts, one from the group of nor- 
mal colleges, one from the group of senior colleges, one from 
the group of junior colleges, one district superintendent of 
schools, and one principal of a high school. (Bulletin 80, 
State Department of Education, Texas High Schools.) 
These, by majority vote, settle all questions of classification. 



County High Schools in the South 63 



Their Distribution 

The following table gives the distribution of Texas high 
schools by their classification, as fixed by the Classification 

Committee : 

TABLE XX 

Showing Distribution of High Schools by Classes 



Class of High Schools 


No. Schools in the State 


1 


301 


2 


107 


3 


142 



As seen by the table, the number of first-class high schools 
(a first-class high school in Texas, as defined by Texas law, 
is a four-year high school, above the seventh grade) is 
greater than the combined number of second and third- 
class high schools. This total number includes only the 
schools visited and classified. 

Summary and Conclusion — Administrative 
Organization 

In the administrative organization of the county high 
schools in the South there is a wide range in the degree of 
centralization developed. At one extreme is Maryland, 
where the entire control of education is in the hands of a 
state board, who, in the administration of education, both 
secondary and elementary, delegate specific functions to 
appointed officers. The Code is definite on matters per- 
taining to local administration of schools in such things as 
qualifications and salaries of teachers, standardization of 
conditions in high schools, and uniformity throughout their 
organization. At the other extreme is Texas, where local 
administration of a nominal county system is in the hands 
of local boards of trustees, who are elected by the people of 
the district. Secondary-school matters are more nearly in 
the hands of the county board of trustees, who are also 
elected by the people of the county. County superintend- 
ents in less than two-thirds of the counties are elected ; in 
the others they are County Judges, ex officio. At the en- 
tire head of the state system is an ex-officio state board, 
having but one member, an educator, who, too, is elected at 
the regular election. Even the plan for the supervision of 
city high schools emphasizes most strongly one principle — 
decentralization of authority. The administrative organi- 
zations for secondary education, of the other states studied, 
range between these two types. 

The state systems in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
and Florida seem to approach more nearly the Maryland 



64 The Administration of 

type ; while there seems a less decided tendency in the same 
direction in the organizations of North Carolina, Kentucky, 
and Tennessee. Certain it seems that in all the states stud- 
ied, coincident, at least, to strongly developed county or- 
ganization, is a strong tendency toward centralization of 
administrative authority in secondary education. 

Supervision in the County High Schools of the South 

A study of legal provisions and financial support provided 
for high-school supervision, on the part of any other than 
local • authorities, checked by a study of the latest high- 
school reports, indicates these things: First, inadequate 
financial provision prevents adequate force for any super- 
vision other than one which must result merely in inspec- 
tion. This is shown in the report of the Maryland inspec- 
tor, who feels that the intent of the law is that the super- 
vision shall be other than inspection and classification, but 
who is forced by the situation he faces to confine himself to 
the latter policy. A second thing, which is seen and seems 
also strongly felt, as indicated by Superintendent Dowell, 
of Alabama, in his comment on high-school supervision, is 
the failure of the state to provide at all for the support of 
even inspection, and to throw the responsibility on a pro- 
fessorship in the state university, or perhaps to leave it to 
be supported in whole or in part by outside funds. A third 
thing is the seeming conflict of standards for classification, 
the result of which is the State Department setting up its 
own requirements for accrediting, while the state univer- 
sity is using the standards of the Southern Commission for 
Accrediting Secondary Schools. Such a situation is indi- 
cated in the superintendent's comments on the report of 
Dr. Thackston in the latest Florida Report. A fourth thing 
is the absence of any mention in the law or report of any 
use of objective standards in supervision of high-school 
work. Nowhere is mention made in the sources of this 
study of any use being made of standard tests in evaluating 
the results obtained in high-school teaching. 

Distribution of County High Schools in the South 

BY States 

In viewing the general distribution of high schools over 
the whole South, there are a number of things which seem 
to stand out. One of the very first things to impress one is 
the unequal distribution of these schools by counties. It 
would be, of course, absurd to suppose the same number of 
schools in each county would be necessary to quality of 



County High Schools in the South 65 

educational opportunity in the different counties. In fact, 
where there is a law like the Alabama Code, which estab- 
lished one high school in each county, the first question, in 
the face of unequal population, unequal transportation, and 
other economic facilities, is: Doesn't the very identity of 
number make impossible the equality of educational oppor- 
tunity? But while this latter observation may hold in the 
Alabama case, it is certainly in no sense true in the case 
of North Carolina, where twenty farm-life high schools are 
distributed among eighteen counties, leaving four times that 
many counties without a single farm-life high school. Nor 
does it explain nearly half the counties in Mississippi with- 
out an agricultural high school. Similarly it does not ex- 
plain the ten counties in Alabama without county high 
schools. 

But it is not only in the group of county high schools 
which emphasizes one particular phase of secondary ed- 
ucation, as the farm-life schools of North Carolina or 
the agricultural high schools of Mississippi, that this in- 
equality of distribution is found. In the county high schools 
of Virginia, where the schools are county high schools 
largely by virtue of being under county control at the pres- 
ent, and not by being developed under county control, in- 
equality of distribution is so evident that the State Super- 
visor of High Schools, in his last report, complains of what 
he calls "overdevelopment." A sufficient number of data 
on economic conditions and on secondary-school population 
in the different counties of the state not being at hand to 
justify any comments on this phase of the distribution in 
this study, it is thought best to base the conclusion as to the 
inequality of opportunity on the fact already mentioned — 
that at least six counties in the state have no accredited 
schools doing 12 units of work or more. In Tennessee 
there are sixteen counties having no county high school 
which is classified by the State Department as first-class. 
Still another point which comes out in the distribution of 
these schools is the relatively large number of three-year 
and two-year high schools. As seen by the tables already 
given, the number of these seems sufficient to justify the 
recommendation several times observed in the state high- 
school reports that a new type of high school, offering a 
shorter program in years than a standard four-year school, 
be developed — in brief, a junior high school. 

In brief, then, the facts discussed in this chapter seem to 
indicate these conclusions: One, administrative organiza- 
tion shows a wide range in the degree of centralization de- 
veloped. Two, in supervision the same fact is observed. 



66 The Administration of 

Three, there is a seeming conflict in standards for accred- 
iting. Four, there is an absence of the use of objective units 
in measuring results of high-school work, shown in supervi- 
sion reports. Fifth, the distribution of county high schools 
shows inequality of opportunity, within a state or between 
several states, in secondary education. Sixth, the relatively 
large number of two-year high schools indicates the need of 
an additional type for an accredited high school. 



CHAPTER FIVE 

Some County High Schools 

Reasons for Studying More Intensively Some County 
High Schools 

So far the study of county high schools has shown that 
there are several types of county high schools. The term, 
"county high school," as it is used, has a very general mean- 
ing ; but a closer study indicates that the acceptance of this 
very general meaning, as meaning uniformity of curricula, 
maintenance, physical equipment, and the other factors 
which go to make up a high school, seems not justified. The 
acceptance of the general term, "high school," as meaning 
that the high schools of New England, of the North Cen- 
tral Association, of the Southern Commission, and of Cal- 
ifornia are somewhat uniform in these same characteris- 
tics would be as nearly so. As there are variations in high 
schools, so variations in county high schools are found. An 
attempted classification of these schools has been offered 
in previous chapters. The study of any one group on the 
basis of classification indicates that variation in the chief 
factors of high-school life exist within the group, even as 
it exists between the groups. 

Within any one of the groups previously discussed, when 
a number of schools in its distribution were studied, differ- 
ent methods of administrative control, different ways of 
providing for maintenance, different distribution of stu- 
dents, different types of faculties, and different points of 
emphasis in the aims of the schools were found. Within 
any one of these groups was usually found some one form 
of administrative control which seems particularly well 
fitted to the particular conditions in which it was found, 
some type which seemed to be growing greater in numbers 
and on which legislative effort and efforts of state super- 
vision were most directed. An interesting question aris- 
ing in connection with this group of schools was: Does 
their growing importance indicate a "survival of the fit?" 
Were they receiving their recognition because they were 
peculiarly fit administratively to afford opportunity in sec- 
ondary education to the county? Finally, it seemed that a 
more detailed study of several of the high schools mentioned 
might serve to emphasize some of the points already no- 
ticed and which will again in subsequent chapters be re- 
ferred to. For these reasons the farm-life high school of 



68 . The Administration of 

North Carolina, the agricultural high schools of Mississippi, 
the county high schools of Alabama, and the county high 
schools of Tennessee will be studied more in detail. There 
has been no attempt to pick out for this special study of the 
individual school a typical school in the statistical mean- 
ing of the term "typical." Instead, the aim has been to 
show what can be done by choosing one of the most highly 
developed schools of the group. In other chapters the stress 
has been laid rather heavily on the entire distribution and 
on statistically typical cases. Partly because of this fact 
it seems advisable to set forth rather in detail some of the 
best accomplishments in these distributions. There is no 
intention of leaving the impression that all of these things 
have been done where this group is found. What has been 
done is shown elsewhere. The intention is to show that 
these things can he done with this form of administration, 
because it has been done here. 

Method of Studying These Schools 

In studying these schools, the history of their develop- 
ment will be studied. The future of the school, as nearly 
as it can be predicted on authentic sources, will be indi- 
cated. Illustrations drawn from individual schools and 
pertinent facts relating to them will be emphasized in a 
study which aims to be individual rather than general. 

The Development of the Fa7^m-Life High School of 
North Carolina 

The first bill for the farm-life high school to be ratified 
provided for the departments of manual training and do- 
mestic science in the public high schools of Guilford County. 
It provided $2,500 of county support and an equal special 
state aid. It named the purpose of the school as being to 
give to the girls and boys of the county such education as 
the county high school provided, and at the same time to 
provide instruction in agriculture and farm life and to pre- 
pare the girls for home making and home keeping. It out- 
lined the plans for the faculty and for the programs of 
study. Its last Act applied this law to any county which 
would comply with the provisions of the Act. (Public 
School Laws, 1911, ratified March 1, 1911 ; amendments to, 
ratified March 10, 1913.) Immediately after the ratifica- 
tion of this Act, another, known as "the county farm-life 
school" law, was ratified. (Public School Laws of 1911, 
ratified March 3, 1911.) This law provided for a school 
in every county which should comply with the provisions of 



County High Schools in the South 69 

the Act. More specifically, this law puts the emphasis on 
"home making and housekeeping on the farm." It indi- 
cates a school, not a department. The board of its control 
differs from that of the other schools in that it is a special 
board. Its instruction is intended for adults as well as for 
those usually constituting the secondary-school population. 
It has an extension department, with short courses, for the 
adults referred to. But the chief feature is that, instead 
of being a department of a regular high school, it has as 
departments some of the regular curricula of public high 
schools. 

Specific Farm-Life High Schools 

There were on June 30, 1917, two farm-life high schools 
organized under the law described in the last paragraph. 
They were the farm-life high schools at Vanceboro, in 
Craven County, and the one at Clemmons, in Forsythe 
County. The school at Vanceboro was established in 1913 ; 
the one at Clemmons, in 1915. The other farm-life schools 
are organized under the law described as the ''Guilford 
County law." As the original farm-life high school, the 
Vanceboro school is studied in detail. 

Vanceboro Farm-Life High School 

The farm-life school at Vanceboro was established for 
Craven County under the bill passed by the North Caro- 
lina Legislature in March, 1911. The law provided that the 
township which offered the best financial inducements 
should secure the location of the school ; and its location was 
secured by Vanceboro, a village of some 500 population, 
raising by subscription ninety acres of land and by voting 
a bond issue of $10,000 for building purposes. The school 
is located in the coastal plains section of the state, in a com- 
munity devoted to agriculture, and in what is described by 
Mr. Joslyn, its principal (Catalog, Craven County Farm 
Life High School, 1917-1918), as a "good typical farming 
section." The law which established the school sets forth 
its purpose, the statement of that purpose being: "The 
training and preparation of the boys and girls for farm life 
and home making." There is an additional purpose ex- 
pressed by the school, and that is to help the adult farming 
population of its community to fuller living. 

The Administration of "Vanceboro" Physical Equipment 

Besides the farm, consisting of ninety acres of land, al- 
ready referred to, the Vanceboro school has as its physical 
equipment a dormitory which was built to accommodate 



70 The Administration of 

fifty boarding students. This is a brick building, and con- 
tains, besides the living rooms for students, kitchen, dining 
room, the laboratories for agriculture, for physics, for 
chemistry, and one classroom. It is modern in that it has 
electric lights, steam heat, and water. The administration 
building, which is the main building for classroom pur- 
poses, has, besides the laboratory, study hall, office, music 
room, etc., three classrooms. In addition to these build- 
ings are: the principal's cottage (a five-room bungalow, 
maintained, as indicated by the name, as a home for the 
principal of the school), a farmers' cottage, a power plant, 
and the farm barn. The school has a small dairy herd and 
some pure-bred hogs. These serve both for use in demon- 
stration work and as sources of supply for the dormitory. 

Faculty of Vanceboro Farm-Life High School 

In the high school proper there were for the school year 
1917-1918, including the principal and matron, nine mem- 
bers. The principal was a graduate (degree, Bachelor of 
Agriculture) of the North Carolina Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College, and the instructor in agriculture had a 
bachelor's degree from the same institution, and the two 
teachers of academic subjects had A.B. degrees. For the 
other five teachers degrees were not listed. (Catalog, 
Craven County Farm-Life High School, 1917-1918.) They 
were all listed as having attended special schools for their 
special subjects, but were not listed with degrees. 

Program of Studies 

The program of studies was four years in length and em- 
braced two curricula, the first known as the "agriculture- 
household economics course" and the second as the "Eng- 
lish course." These curricula contain in common: Eng- 
lish, history, algebra, arithmetic, chemistry, and agricul- 
ture. The chief diff'erences in them were that in the house- 
hold economics course there was added to these such voca- 
tional subjects as farm carpentry, animal husbandry, horti- 
culture, farm mechanics, farm management, farm engi- 
neering, cooking, sewing, sanitation, and home management. 
The English course to the common subjects mentioned above 
added Latin and geometry. According to the school's state- 
ment (Catalog, Craven County Farm-Life High School, 
1918-1919), the purpose of the "English course was to 
satisfy college-entrance requirements. In detail, the Eng- 
lish course was the regulation grammar, rhetoric, and com- 
position over the first two years of work, supplemented 



County High Schools in the South 71 

with classics from English and American literature the last 
two years. History was ancient, medieval, modern, Eng- 
lish, and American in the order named ; mathematics, com- 
mon to both courses, being rural arithmetic the first year, 
with the second and third years devoted to algebra. In the 
English curriculum plane geometry occupied the fourth 
year. Biology, chemistry, physics, and Latin corresponded 
in outline closely to the conventional outline commonly 
found in these subjects. General science, and civics were 
outlined as studies of general principles involved in those 
subjects. Domestic art provided four years of work, in- 
cluding two years of sewing, sanitation, and home manage- 
ment. Domestic science, which covered four years, con- 
sisted of two years of general cooking, one year of invalid 
cookery, and a fourth year devoted to the study of bacte- 
riology. Agriculture, as a course, in the first year aimed 
to teach the boy the use of ordinary tools and the making 
of such home articles as porch swings and chairs, flower 
boxes and stands, and the cost of repairing and painting 
farm buildings. This year also aimed to teach him the 
crops best suited to his section and the facts in soil prepa- 
ration, fertilization, cultivation, seed selection, harvesting, 
housing, and marketing necessary to their successful pro- 
duction. In the second year of this course the student stud- 
ied the most popular breeds of live stock — their selection, 
care, and breeding. Especially he studied the breed most 
often found in the Carolinas and how to improve them. In 
connection with this year's work, a study of milk products 
and the processes of handling the separator, testing milk, 
and the making of dairy products was made. The third 
year sought to acquaint him with garden and market veg- 
etables — how to grow and how to market them. It aimed 
to teach him how to select, to plant, to fertilize, to prune, to 
spray, to harvest, and to market berries and fruits. Spe- 
cial stress was given to growing a home orchard and garden. 
It also aimed to make him familiar with farm machinery 
and how to use and to care for it. In the last year he stud- 
ied the selection of a farm and the business management of 
one after it has been selected. This was supplemented by a 
study of drainage, terracing farms, the laying out of fields, 
of canals, and similar problems of farm engineering. 

In addition to these two standard four-year curricula, 
there was a one-year curriculum, designed for those who 
would not for various reasons be able to go to high school. 
This curriculum was "swung in" between the regular seven 
years of grade work and the high-school program. In its 
designing it was aimed to be such that when the pupil com- 



72 The Administration of 

pleted it he would have rather an accurate knowledge of 
formal grammar and the principles of arithmetic. In addi- 
tion, the boys would have some of the general principles of 
the courses to be developed later in the high-school course 
in agriculture, as farm carpentry, farm animals, dairying, 
vegetable gardening, fruit culture, field crops, and soils. 
The girls would have, in place of this latter, a general survey 
of food principles and their relations to diet and digestion, 
cooking, menu making, serving, a study of simple stitches, 
textiles, fibers, and suitable fabrics for home clothing. An 
additional hope in the formation of this curriculum was 
stated that it would, besides giving the student a valuable 
body of principles, also fit well into high-school work and 
be the means of further encouragement for later work in 
that line. 

Extra Curricula Activities 

Outside the regular activities of the school which led to- 
ward its diplomas were certain other activities. In mat- 
ters of religious education, the school, by its own statement, 
was "nonsectarian." All its faculty were members of 
Protestant churches. Devotional exercises were held daily 
in the chapel, and attendance was required of all students. 
Attendance at one of the two Sunday schools of Vanceboro 
was also required of all students. 

From 4 to 6 o'clock every afternoon on school days and 
all the afternoon Saturdays were given to athletic games. 
Throughout the week the activities were between the stu- 
dent groups, but on Saturdays the younger folk of the com- 
munity were encouraged to participate. Baseball, basket 
ball, and tennis were played by both boys and girls. 

There were other student activities, including one liter- 
ary society, and every student was required to be an active 
member of it. The programs included the regular activi- 
ties of such societies, and the work was conducted by the 
usual methods and with the usual purposes. There was a 
chorus to which all students could belong, and individual 
lessons, instrumental and vocal, were provided for a spe- 
cial fee. Public programs, with "outside speakers," were 
featured several times yearly. There was no tuition charge 
for students from Craven County. Students from other 
counties paid two dollars per month. Board was furnished 
students at cost. Room rent for the year in the dormitory 
was twenty-five dollars. Board, even in the 1918-1919 sea- 
son, was ten dollars per month, and where the student re- 
turned to his home for the week end it was eight dollars. 
Student labor was encouraged, for the year 1917-1918 five, 
hundred dollars being expended for that purpose. 



County High Schools in the South 73 

That the school was trying to do some practical work for 
the betterment of living conditions in its community was 
shown by the statistical study just published by Principal 
Joslyn, which interprets the data collected by the United 
States Census Bureau on butter production. The point of 
the study was the small amount of butter produced by the 
number of cows owned by the county and a statistical ar- 
gument for fewer cows of better producing qualities. The 
study under the title, "The Importance of Dairy Industry 
to Craven County," is included in the current catalog of the 
school. (Catalog, Craven County Farm-Life High School, 
1918-1919.) 

Distribution of Students 

There were thirty-five students in the first-year class — 
twelve boys and twenty-three girls ; in the second-year class 
there were just a dozen students, seven of whom were boys ; 
in the third-year class there were eleven, six of whom were 
girls ; while the fourth-year, or the senior, class had only 
seven students, with three boys remaining. An indication 
of the decreasing size of classes is seen from the tabulated 
statement below: 

TABLE XXI 

Showing Distribution op Students by Years in Craven 
County (N. C.) High School 

Fourth Year, 
First Year Second Year Third Year or Senior 
No. students enrolled in class 35 12 11 7 

Two things must be kept in mind when studying this ta- 
ble. First, such a distribution is never more than an in- 
dication of elimination. An accurate measure can only be 
obtained by taking the figures of the students in the fourth- 
year class at the different year stages indicated. A second 
thing to be remembered is that the extreme youth of the 
school renders its population far from stable. 

The future of the farm-life high school at Vanceboro, in 
common with that of the other farm-life high schools, is. 
perhaps, most safely predicted, from the standpoint of 
this study, by a quotation from the Inspector of High 
Schools for North Carolina, Mr. N. W. Walker, who says : 
"After the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, providing 
federal aid for vocational education, a new policy was 
adopted with reference to the farm-life schools. Instead 
of encouraging the establishment and development of the 
farm-life schools, it was decided to encourage, rather, vo- 
cational education under the Smith-Hughes Act. Of course 
the farm-life school law is still on our statute books, but 
it has been modified in such a way as to make the estab- 



74 The Administration of 

lishment of new farm-life high schools almost impossible. 
I do not look for the establishment of another farm-life 
high school in North Carolina in the next decade." 
(Quoted from a letter received from Mr. Walker, dated 
April 4, 1919, in answer to a request for recent information 
concerning this group of schools. That Mr. Walker's pre- 
diction with regard to the future of this group of schools is 
based upon what is actually happening in them is clearly 
shown in the report of the federal aid for vocational edu- 
cation in North Carolina (Bulletin No. II, December 1, 
1918, p. 34), which shows eight of the farm-life schools as 
vocational schools and one of them as an "all-day home 
economics school." While it is believed that, with govern- 
ment aid and control, educational opportunities can be more 
nearly equalized in these schools, and the equipment can be 
brought to a higher state of development, and a maximum 
of usefulness secured from them, yet it must be admitted 
that they are then county high schools only in the unit of 
territory they serve, while support and control has changed 
to another unit. It is, then, as such they are left. As 
county high schools, they were developed to supply a special 
form of instruction to the county. As such schools, but 
aided and controlled in part, at least, by the national gov- 
ernment, devoted to a more strictly vocational type of edu- 
cation, seems destined to be their future history. 

Alabama County High Schools — The History of 
Their Development 

The administrative organization, maintenance, and va- 
rious facts concerning the Alabama county high schools 
have been discussed. Their origin was in a bill in the 
Legislature of 1908, which appropriated $2,000 for each 
school established. Four years later the appropriation was 
increased to $3,000, and by 1917 fifty-seven counties had 
taken advantage of the law and had established county high 
schools. 

Jefferson County High School — Hs History aiid Location 

The county high school of Jefferson County was one of 
the last of the fifty-seven to be established, it being com- 
pleted in 1917. It is one of the most comprehensive in its 
plans of any of these schools, and it started its first year 
with an enrollment second in the distribution of county 
high schools, being exceeded this first year only by the Cull- 
man County High School, and by it only by five pupils, the 
latter having 206 enrolled. The Jefi'erson County High 



County High Schools in the South 75 

School was established largely through the efforts of one of 
the citizens of Boyles, Mrs. H. E. Pearce, who, in her ''plans 
for civic betterment, worked untiringly, undaunted by op- 
position, until she could bring this educational opportunity 
to her community." Speaking of the work of Mrs. Pearce 
for the Jefferson County community, Mr. Dimmitt, some- 
time High School Inspector for Alabama, said : "Through 
her persistent efforts sentiment was crystallized in favor 
of the school, with the result that local contributions and 
appropriations from the county were made, sufficient to 
build the first unit of the building, at a cost of $40,000." 
(Report of State Inspector of High Schools, 1916-1917, 
page 11.) The plans for the school in the beginning called 
for two additional units in equipment when demanded by 
the enrollment. The school is located at Boyles, a town of 
1,500 inhabitants, a suburb of Birmingham. It is con- 
nected with the latter by interurban railway. On the north 
and on the south, in close proximity to Boyles, are the towns 
of Tarrant City and Inglenook.„ The location of the school 
insured a large number of students, and opened a relatively 
large number of homes for the accommodation of high- 
school students from other parts of the county. 

The Administration and Physical Equipment of Jefferson 
County High School 

The Jefferson County High School has a ten-acre lot of 
land for its site, which is valued at $3,000. The first build- 
ing was built at a cost of $40,000. This building was de- 
stroyed by fire, and was replaced by a building costing 
$75,000. The new building possessed an auditorium with 
a seating capacity of 500 persons, a gymnasium, and with 
a lunch room with a capacity for 400. It has at least six 
rooms more than the old building had, and provides for 
manual training, home economics, art and expression, and 
music rooms, as well as laboratories for physics and chemis- 
try. (Annual Report of County Superintendent of Schools, 
Jefferson County, Ala., 1917-1918.) 

Faculty 

The faculty in 1917 consisted of nine members, including 
the principal, of whom six had bachelor's degrees, one a 
normal-school diploma, one a college diploma in a special 
subject, and one had only attended normal school and col- 
lege without completing work for a degree. In 1918 the 
faculty had increased to twelve members, with a slight in- 
crease in the relative number holding college degrees, but 



76 The Administration of 

with the same absolute number with less than a college de- 
gree as equipment for teaching. 

Progranfi of Studies 

The program of studies for the county high schools of 
Alabama was prescribed by the High School Commission. 
The program of studies for the Jefferson County High 
School was in harmony with the general course published 
by the State Department of Education for Alabama. 
(Course of Study for County High Schools, July, 1918; 
Bulletin of State Department of Education for Alabama 
and Catalog and Course of Study for Jefferson County 
High School, Session of 1917-1918.) The program em- 
braced three curricula — ''Science Course," ''Latin Course," 
and "Modern Language Course"— built on seven years of 
grade work. The constants in the three curricula were 
English and mathematics. These two subjects appeared 
in every year in every curriculum. At least three years of 
history appeared in every curriculum, although it was not 
universal as far as different years were concerned, as were 
English and mathematics. Science appeared in all curric- 
ula, but only one year of it was in the modern-language 
curriculum. There were four years of vocational work in 
each curriculum. The science differed from the Latin cur- 
riculum merely by the omission of Latin. It differs from 
the modern language by the omission of both Latin and the 
modern languages. 

Courses in Detail — Different Subjects 

English. — The courses of study in English were identical 
in all three curricula. For the first year it was grammar, 
composition, classics, and spelling; in the second year it 
w;as composition, rhetoric, classics, and spelling; in the 
third year, composition, classics, history of American Lit- 
erature, and spelling; and in the fourth year, history of 
English literature was substituted for American. 

Mathematics. — In the first semester in the three cur- 
ricula arithmetic was taught in the first year. Algebra 
followed for one and one-half years, with plane geometry 
in the third year, and the final year of the course was given 
to solid geometry and to second-course algebra. 

Vocational Work. — The course in vocational training 
was the same in all three curricula, except that in the final 
year of the Latin curriculum it was optional. In the first 
year it consisted of manual training for boys and cooking 
for girls, with home and school gardening for both. In the 



County High Schools in the South 77 

second year it was woodworking for boys, with second-year 
cooking for girls, and a second year of school gardening for 
both. Farm mechanics was taught boys as vocational ag- 
riculture in the third year, and sewing for the girls, with a 
third year of school gardening for both. The vocational 
course was completed by a fourth year of work, consisting 
of school gardening, which was either home or school gar- 
dening in the Latin course, and which was also optional in 
that course. 

Science. — During the first year of the science course in 
the science curriculum, in the first semester the general 
principles of agriculture were taught ; during the second 
semester, general science. The same was true in the mod- 
ern-language curriculum and the Latin cirriculum, except 
that general science was omitted. Horticulture and bot- 
any constituted the science in the science curriculum, which 
was all the science offered this year, it being omitted from 
the other two curricula. The modern language omitted 
science in the third year, and in the Latin curriculum phys- 
ics was offered. In the science curriculum, besides phys- . 
ics, agriculture in one of the following phases was given: 
animal husbandry, dairying, poultry, and field crops. In 
the science and modern language of the fourth year chem- 
istry was given, no science being given in the Latin curric- 
ulum. 

History. — English history was taught the first year in 
all three curricula. General history was taught the second 
year. It was omitted in the third year from all three cur- 
ricula, and American history and civics were taught in all 
three curricula for the fourth year. 

Foreign Languages. — Latin was not included in the sci- 
ence curriculum. Two years of beginner's Latin was given 
in the Latin curriculum, followed by a year in Caesar, and 
completed by a fourth year in Cicero. Two years of begin- 
ner's Latin was given by the modern-language course, fol- 
lowed by German or French in the third and fourth years. 

Extra Curricula Activities 

Among the student organizations providing the activities 
outside the regular course work of the school were four lit- 
erary societies, an athletic association, a boys' glee club, a 
girls' glee club, a history forum, a better-speech council, 
and a Red Cross Society. These organizations were strictly 
student organizations, and were thriving, both in numbers 
and in work. An annual, "The Jeff Cohi," was published 
by the students, they even putting out one the year the 
building was destroyed by fire. 



78 The Administration of 



Distribution of Students 

In the fourth, or senior, year of the Jefferson County 
High School there were sixteen girls and six boys. The 
third year had fifty students, divided almost equally, there 
being twenty-four girls and twenty-six boys. There were 
forty girls and forty-five boys in the second year, and 154 
students in the beginning year, making a total of 310 stu- 
dents. This was 100 more than the number reported for 
the largest county high school in the State for the year pre- 
vious. The distribution by years is shown in the follow- 
ing table: 

TABLE XXII 

Showing Distribution of Jefferson County (Ala.) High School 
Students by Years 

First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 
No. students enrolled by classes 154 85 49 22 

There is no basis for the indication of the elimination of 
pupils in this table, owing to the extreme youth of the 
school. Its holding power, as indicated by the State High 
School Inspector's report (Bulletin No. 58, State Depart- 
ment of Education for Alabama, p. 25), measured by the 
pupils retaining membership for the year, based on the to- 
tal enrollment for the year, was almost exactly the average 
of the state. 

Summary and Conclusions for Alabama County 
High Schools 

As indicated by the program of studies just discussed, 
these county high schools seem to be well fitted to take on 
additional work in vocational education, without changing 
materially their administrative status. The rapid growth 
and development of the Jefferson County High School, even 
under conditions which might have, at least, delayed very 
materially such progress, indicates what can be done with 
such a high school. Surely the plan employed in such an 
organization as just described is a very long step toward 
offering the students of Jefferson County educational op- 
portunities comparable to those enjoyed in the typical town 
high school of the state. 



Hinds County (Miss.) Agricultural High School — 
Histoy^y and Location 

A study of the Hinds County Agricultural High School 
shows the history and development of one of the Missis- 



County High Schools in the South 79 

sippi agricultural county high schools. As in the case of 
the two others discussed, it cannot be said to be typical of 
these schools, but is offered rather as an illustration of 
what is being done in one of them. It was established in 
the fall of 1916, and began operations in the fall of 1917. 
It will be remembered from a previous chapter that the 
second law for the establishment of these schools, the first 
having been declared unconstitutional, was passed in 1910. 
At the time of their completion the physical equipment for 
the Hinds County High School was one of the most exten- 
sive, if not the most extensive, which had been undertaken. 
The second session of this school opened on September 10, 
1918. The school will be discussed on what it had that 
year. 

The Hinds County School is located at Raymond, the 
county in which Jackson, the state capital, is located, and 
is a short distance west and an almost equal distance south 
of the center of the state. One county lies between it and 
the Mississippi River. It is a rich agricultural section, and 
Raymond is practically the geographic center of the county. 
The school was located here by the Hinds County Board in 
the fall of 1916. 

Hinds County Agricultural High School — Physical 
Equipment 

According to the survey of Hinds County, published by 
the State Supervisor of Rural Schools and the County Su- 
perintendent of Hinds County (Survey of the Schools of 
Hinds County, Miss., by J. T. Calhoun, Supervisor of Rural 
Schools, and F. M. Coleman, County Superintendent of Ed- 
ucation, 1917), the equipment of the Hinds County Agricul- 
tural High School was the most extensive and the most am- 
ple that any county in the state had provided for any one 
of the forty-four agricultural high schools. The farm con- 
sisted of 160 acres, described as "splendid farming land." 
There was an administration building, built at a cost of 
more than $20,000. There were two dormitories, repre- 
senting a cost of more than $35,000, a superintendent's 
home, power plants, barns, and other buildings. Alto- 
gether, excluding the farm, they represented an investment 
of between $75,000 and $100,000. 

Faculty and Program of Studies, Hinds County 
Agricultural High School 

The faculty, exclusive of the superintendent, matron, and 
engineer, meaning those only who are actively engaged in 



80 The Administration of 

teaching, numbered eight — five women and three men. 
The program of studies carried, in the language of the 
catalog (Announcement, Hinds County High School, 1918- 
1919), a standard high-school course, and provided by elec- 
tion from its course curricula which are both preparation 
for college and for a vocation. There was a special cur- 
riculum which provided training for rural teachers, and 
there were also special courses in military training and in 
music. 

Special Cowses 

Military training was provided as a special course, and 
was required of every boy. The uniform was the regulation 
khaki, and the work done was the customary drill, and lec- 
tures were described as the kind usually required in that 
work in secondary schools. Courses of instruction in vio- 
lin and cornet were provided, and by the payment of a spe- 
cial fee a course in expression could be obtained. 

Regular First-Year Courses 

In the first year's work two subjects were required of 
all students — first-year English and first-year algebra. 
Boys were required to study the principles of agriculture; 
the girls, cooking. To make up the fourth unit, either 
Latin or general science could be elected. Special work in 
spelling and writing was required of all. 

Second-Year Courses 

In the second year, English (emphasizing composition), 
history of the ancient world, and a second year of algebra 
("Milne's Standard"), and three times a week spelling 
and writing, were required of every one. Girls did three 
periods per week of sewing and two of cooking. If a boy 
in this year elected vocational agriculture, he might omit 
all Latin. If he did not take the agriculture, then he must 
elect Latin, to make up his required number of subjects, as 
these two were the only subjects which were elective. 

Third-Year Courses 

In the third year every one took English, which again 
emphasized composition. All the girls took sewing three 
times per week and cooking twice. Plane geometry was 
required of both boys and girls, with vocational agriculture 
(animal husbandry) elective for boys. Three periods of 
writing and three of spelling were required of all. Modern 
history, stenography, and bookkeeping were elective. In 
this year the special curriculum for teacher training began. 



County High Schools in the South 81 

the education course for the year being "Theory and Prac- 
tice of Teaching." 

Fourth-Year Course 

In the fourth year every one took English, as in the 
other three years. Sohd geometry and arithmetic, Amer- 
ican history and government, writing and spelhng were 
required of every one. Sewing three times a week and 
cooking twice was required of all girls. The elective sub- 
jects were vocational agriculture, stenography, bookkeep- 
ing, and school management. Boys who elected to take 
vocational agriculture might also elect to take one other 
subject. Girls could elect one subject from the list. The 
course in school management belonged to the special cur- 
riculum for training rural teachers. In both of the courses 
it was said that the theory of the educational subject was 
given three times per week, and a review of the elementary 
branches, emphasizing such ones as the "needs and attain- 
ments" of the class indicate, occupied the other two days. 

Extra Curricula Activities 

During the life of the school, which has been during war 
times, athletic life has been wholly between classes and 
groups within the school. There has been no attempt to 
promote "interscholastic athletics." Military training, al- 
though it can hardly be classed as extra curriculum, offered 
a special athletic field for boys. Regular physical training, 
which also could hardly be classed outside the regular 
courses, was required of all girls. 

Special Administrative Features 

One administrative feature of this high school that mer- 
its especial attention is its all-year-round program. The 
survey already referred to (Survey of the Schools of Hinds 
County, Miss.) speaks of a twelve-months' year, quartered 
in terms of twelve weeks. However, the summer-session 
announcement for the present year (Special Announcement, 
Hinds County Agricultural High School, 1919) indicates an 
eight-weeks' summer term, beginning May 29. Growing 
out of this feature, and the added emphasis on vocational 
education which is being given to the work of the agricul- 
tural high school, is the work of the extension department, 
which has as its aim the betterment of the living condi- 
tions in the county which the high school serves. This 
especial emphasis is made possible by the county agricultu- 
ral high school being perhaps the best adapted of any of 
the three groups of schools which can be approved under 



82 The Administration of 

the state plan for administering vocational education. 
(Educational Bulletin No. 11, Vocational Series No. 1, Vo- 
cational Department, Public Education, Mississippi, p. 21.) 



Millington High School, Shelby County, Tenn. — 
Location and History 

This county high school, which was chosen as one of the 
progressive and well-developed county high schools of Ten- 
nessee, is located in the town of Millington, in Shelby 
County, and is about twenty miles north of Memphis. It 
is on the Illinois Central Railroad, and has two gravel roads 
leading to Memphis. The town has a population of about 
1,000. 

The Superintendent of Shelby County, Miss Charl Or- 
mand Williams, was a prime worker in the move to secure 
and locate the school. The school was really formed from 
the consolidation of districts, and it was the superintendent 
who saw the advantage of this location for a central high 
school. When the question of locating and building this 
high school began to be prominent, she was especially aided 
by the two members of the county board from this district. 
The county board had already been convinced of the ad- 
vantages which would come from locating a central high 
school in this section of the county ; so that when the move- 
ment centered in the effort to build the high school at Mil- 
lington, little opposition was encountered. The fact that 
the building which housed the existing school was in most 
ways inadequate made easier the whole movement. The 
township board in the township where the school is located 
donated money toward the establishment of the school, and 
the village of Millington built the "teacherage" which was 
on the campus. The school opened for work in August, 
1917. 

Physical Equipment, Millington High School 

The school plot had five acres of ground in its campus, 
the main building, which may be called the ''administration 
building," being adequate for the use of the twelve school 
grades. It had, besides classrooms for these grades, labo- 
ratory rooms, an assembly room, and offices. It was built 
at a cost of $61,000. The home of the principal was built 
at a cost of $5,000. In the laboratories referred to there 
was, for the teaching of chemistry, physics, and biology, 
equipment valued at $900. The equipment for domestic 
science cost $750 ; for manual training, $300 ; and for agri- 



County High Schools in the South 83 

culture, $475. The library equipment was valued at $300. 
(Values obtained from data furnished through the courtesy 
of Miss Williams, County Superintendent, Shelby County, 
Tenn.) 

Faculty of Millington High School 

There were six teachers in the regular high-school de- 
partment of this school. Elementary grades, eight in num- 
ber, were operated in connection with the school, and the 
entire teaching force of the school was listed at fourteen. 
There were, however, only eight who could possibly be 
listed as high-school teachers, and two of these did mixed 
grade and high-school work. These two were teachers of 
special subjects — home economics and manual training — 
and did little more than just high-school work. Six of the 
eight teachers had Bachelor's degrees, four teachers having 
Bachelor of Arts degrees, one a Bachelor of Science de- 
gree, and the principal had both a Bachelor and Master of 
Arts degree. The principal of the school received last year 
$1,800 per year. The teacher of agriculture received the 
same. Four of the high-school teachers received $810 per 
year, and the remaining two only $720. 

Student Body, Millington High School 

The student body in the high school proper, which means 
in the grades from nine to twelve, inclusive, was still small. 
One thing about it was noticeable, and that was, there were 
almost as many students in the twelfth grade as there were 
in the ninth. That this was not indicative of the holding 
power of the high school was evidenced, however, by the 
youth of the school. The following table illustrates the dis- 
tribution of the students : 

TABLE XXIII 

Showing Distribution op Students by Years in Shelby 
County (Tenn.) High School 

NUMBER OF STUDENTS BY YEARS 

First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 
12 7 10 9 

Program of Studies 

The program of studies which was used by this high 
school was the state-required program for county high 
schools in Tennessee. (Bulletin, Tennessee Department of 
Education, "Course of Study for the County High Schools 
in Tennessee," date 1918, p. 9.) In Chapter Nine of this 
study this program of studies is discussed in detail. It is 
sufficient now to notice only the features bearing on this 



84 The Administration of 

particular high school. As will be seen in the subsequent 
chapter, this program of studies belonged to the type which 
had a number of required subjects (nine units of required 
work were indicated), and a wide range of other subjects 
from which to elect the remaining units. Two factors had 
operated to determine the character and the number of 
curricula resulting from this plan — one, the oifering of a 
regular course in vocational agriculture, that the demands 
of the Smith-Hughes Act might be met; two, the small 
number of students to elect different combinations, which 
still further kept down the number of curricula. 

Exty^a Curricula Activities 

There were a number of student activities which did not 
come within the range of the curriculum proper. Among 
these were corn clubs, pig clubs, poultry clubs, garden clubs, 
and canning clubs among the students of agriculture, de- 
bating societies for students most interested in literary 
work, and tennis and basket-ball teams for those students 
with interests in athletics. For all the students there was 
in the high-school auditorium, with its seating capacity of 
one thousand, a moving-picture machine. Once each week, 
at least, censored picture shows were given to all students. 
A community room was located just back of the auditorium. 
This room was built with an outside entrance. All neces- 
sary cabinets and furniture had been supplied for this room. 
A kitchenette was installed at the time of the erection of 
the building. This room, which served as a meeting place 
for both men and women clubs, was said to have done much 
toward bringing the people of Millington in contact with 
the high school and to help make it a real community center. 

Summary and Conclusions 

These different schools were described rather in detail, 
because it was believed that they illustrated what the facts 
of the other chapters have established — that outside the cit- 
ies and towns of the South there is a rural high school de- 
velopment of great importance to that section, and one that 
is worthy of close study. What occasioned the question 
was Dr. Snyder's disposition of the rural high school in the 
South. Writing about ten years ago (Snyder, "Legal 
Status of Rural High Schools," Columbia Contribution No. 
24, p. 114, date 1909), he said: "The Southern States pre- 
sent a different stage of development from that of the other 
states of the Union [referring to rural high schools] .... 
Most of these states have had more than they could well 



County High Schools in the South 85 

manage in the attempt to establish and maintain elementary 
schools." 

Chapter Four established, on the basis of the facts of dis- 
tribution, that there is in the states of the South a rural 
high-school movement of significance, and one which merits 
extended study. This chapter illustrates what has been 
done in some of the most highly developed cases. It further 
seems to indicate that conditions have radically changed in 
the past ten years, which, no doubt, to a great extent, is 
true, or that Dr. Snyder assumed what he was, perhaps, 
not careful enough to justify objectively concerning the 
status of the rural high school in the South. 



CHAPTER SIX 

The Physical Equipment of County High Schools 

Importance of Physical Equipment of High Schools 

As in maintenance, one of the most important phases of 
a law which estabhshes a county high school is that phase 
which provides for the physical equipment of the school. 
Scarcely second in importance, in fact, to that general clause 
for maintenance is the one which establishes the physical 
basis for the school. Educational practice in sections 
where inspection is the basis for approval has long recog- 
nized certain minimum prerequisites in physical equipment 
as a requirement for approval. No matter how strong a 
teaching force may be provided, no matter how carefully 
a program of studies may be fitted to a student group, a con- 
ditioning factor in securing a maximum output from the 
high-school forces has been held to be the equipment with 
which the forces work. To know more, then, of the favor- 
ableness or unfavorableness of the situations under which 
the county high schools in the South are working, one needs 
to know their physical equipment. 

Method of Studying Physical Equipment 

The first basis of physical equipment sought was the le- 
gal provision which was made for it. This equipment might 
come as a requirement to meet standards of accrediting, 
or it might come as a legal requirement in establishing a 
high school. From the standpoint of securing the right 
equipment, there seemed little doubt that a legal provision 
for it as a prerequisite to the establishment of the school 
would be the quickest and surest method. It might, how- 
ever, have prevented some counties from immediately avail- 
ing themselves of the state funds, if providing the legally 
required funds was too great a hardship. On the other 
hand, it seems, such a plan would certainly provide more, 
nearly standard conditions in the very outset; and it has 
the sanction of some of the latest educational practice where 
a state system of high schools was being established. 

Not all the things desired concerning the equipment of 
high schools could be secured in this way, for at least two 
reasons — first, in any county high school physical equip- 
ment had gradually been provided with the development of 
the school, and because of an implied rather than a specified 
legal provision; second, where a legal provision for phys- 



County High Schools in the South 87 

ical equipment existed, it was for a minimum, which in 
many cases would be exceeded in the working out of the law. 
For these reasons county high schools will be studied, first, 
to find out what the laws which created them provided in 
the way of beginning equipment. Then the actual distri- 
bution of that equipment will be studied where authentic 
facts concerning it can be determined. In studying equip- 
ment, the classification or grouping of county high schools 
defined and used in Chapters Two, Three, and Four will, 
for the sake of convenience, be used again. And, again, 
the salient features in a distribution, together with its sum- 
mary, will be the basis for determining conditions regarding 
equipment. 

Physical Equipment, Alabama County High Schools — 
Legal Provisions For 

As a legal provision for the physical equipment in the 
county high schools of Alabama, it was provided that be- 
fore the state would appropriate the regular annual state 
aid for maintenance the county must have provided a suit- 
able site, with not less than five acres of land and with a 
building which would cost not less than $5,000. (General 
Public School Laws of Alabama, 1915, Article 20, p. 71.) 
This was the basis for physical equipment in this group of 
schools. Further, it was legally with that equipment that 
they all would start. Later additional equipment would 
come through local initiative and through requirements for 
approval which the State High School Commission would 
have power to determine. 

Facts Concerning Equipment as it Has Developed 

In the working out of the providing of sites and build- 
ings as provided in the law referred to above, the range of 
this equipment (Report of State High School Inspector of 
Schools, 1916-1917, Bulletin No. 58, as issued by the De- 
partment of Education), as shown by fifty-six of the fifty- 
seven schools reporting (Coosa County report is blank on 
this item), is from $5,000 to $50,000. The median equip- 
ment for buildings and sites is valued at $12,950. The 
"safety zone" in equipment, as Mr. Bobbett defines the term 
(Professor Bobbett refers, in the San Antonio survey, to 
the middle fifty per cent of a distribution arranged in rank 
order as the "zone of safety"), is from $16,000 to $10,750. 
A studj^ of the entire distribution shows only a few schools 
very much below the latter figure. Half of the thirteen 
schools placed below it really differ from it by less than 



88 The Administration of 

$1,000 ; and it must be kept in mind that these are approxi- 
mated values, and really must be personal judgments to a 
considerable extent. Only four are $2,000 less than the 
quartile, and only one differs from it by a value greater 
than the probable error of the tabulation. 

Equipment in Scientific Apparatus 

In the valuation of the laboratory equipment of scien- 
tific apparatus which these schools have, there is a range 
of from zero valuation reported for two schools to a $1,200 
dollar valuation for one. The middle fifty per cent is be- 
tween $200 and $500, the median evaluation of this ap- 
paratus being $325. A third of the schools in the lowest 
quartile have less than $100 worth of such apparatus 
(fifty-five of fifty-seven schools reporting) . 

Library Equipment 

In library equipment these same fifty-five schools report- 
ing show values ranging from zero to $700, the median 
equipment being $275, with less than $155 equipment for 
the quarter which has the lowest value. Above $350 is 
the one-fourth having the highest. One-half of those schools 
in the lowest quartile have library equipment valued at $100. 

Other Equipment 

Rated as equipment, outside the buildings and sites, for 
such equipment as desks, blackboards, and school furnish- 
ings in general, these facts appear : The median equipment 
is $825 in value, while the middle fifty per cent ranges from 
$532 to $1,200. One-half of the schools in the first quar- 
tile (lowest quarter in values) have an equipment in value 
of less than $300, while half those in the fourth quartile 
have equipment valued at $1,800 or more. 

Summary of Facts Concerning Equipment in Alabama 
County High Schools 

The facts which have been discussed in the last several 
paragraphs are summarized in the table given below. A 
brief study of it will serve to make clearer the significant 
points concerning equipment. 



County High Schools in the South 89 

TABLE XXIV 

Showing Valuation of Equipment Values in Alabama County 

High Schools 

Kind of Equipment Maximum Minimum Median *0i Q3 

BuWding and sites $50,000 $5,000 $12,950 $10,750 $16,t)00 

Equipment 2,500 825 532 1,200 

Library 700 275 ' 155 350 

Scientific apparatus 1,200 325 200 500 

*Q1 means the point halfway between the minimum and median values; Q3, the 
point halfway between the maximum and median values. 

The one fact standing out in all these data {^'variation. 
Whether it is a range of from $700 to $0 in library equip- 
ment between schools or a comparison in central tendencies 
between different kinds of equipment, the fact of most sig- 
nificance is the wide difference in values. The significance 
of this variation will be discussed in another place. 



Mississippi Agricultural High Schools — Legal Basis for 

Equipment 

The law which provides for the physical equipment of 
Mississippi agricultural high schools is not so directly stated 
as is the Alabama provision. Municipalities of Mississippi 
are empowered to issue bonds for the purpose of aiding the 
procuring of the establishment of these schools ; and as the 
state board must approve the plans and site for the build- 
ing (Mississippi School Laws, Chapter 11, 1911), they can 
in this way define the amount which must be put into the 
initial plant for the county high school. Legally, while not 
so definitely stated as the plan employed by Alabama, it 
gives greater leeway in the requirements to be made of 
counties of widely varying economic status. 

Building and Sites, Mississippi Agricultural High Schools 

In the report of the State Supervisor of High Schools, 
from the schools which were reported, the range in build- 
ings and sites varies from $20,000 to $60,000, the median 
being $30,000. In furnishings for those buildings the range 
is from $1,000 to $5,000, the median value of furnishings 
being $2,500. Briefly tabulated, these facts show: 

TABLE XXV 

Showing Variations in Equipment Values, Mississippi County 
High Schools 

Kind of Equipment Maximum Value Minimum Value Median Value 

Buildings and sites $60,000 $20,000 $30,000 

Furnishings 5,000 2,000 2,500 



90 The Administration of 

North Carolina Farm-Life High Schools — Legal Basis for 

Equipment 

In the location of farm-life high schools in North Car- 
olina, the amount of physical equipment which a community 
is willing to provide is a determining factor in the location 
of the school. Under the original law, communities, in 
effect, bid for these schools ; and under the Guilford County 
farm-life high-school law, which by amendment in 1913 
became state wide in its application, the high schools bid 
for the creation of the Farm Life Department. The origi- 
nal law provides for an initial equipment, "suitable" build- 
ings and equipment for the carrying out of the courses of 
study, dormitory equipment for not less than twenty-five 
boys and for an equal number of girls, a barn and a dairy 
(both with necessary equipment) , and a farm of not less 
than twenty -five acres of good arable land. The State Su- 
perintendent passes on the desirability of all equipment. 
Under the Guilford County law, the school seeking the loca- 
tion of the department must provide a building suitable for 
teaching the courses required, must have suitable labora- 
tory equipment, and must furnish whatever dormitories 
the County Board of Education shall require. It must also 
furnish a farm of not less than ten acres of good arable 
land. 

North Carolina Farm-Life High Schools — Buildings 
and Sites 

In the establishment of these farm-life schools, only two, 
as has already been noted, were established under what is 
called in the North Carolina report, the ''original law." 
(By the dates given in the same source the Guilford County 
law was ratified before the "original law" was made. The 
amendment which made the Guilford County law state wide 
was not ratified until some two years later, which probably 
accounts for the terminology.) The other nineteen were 
formed as departments of existing high schools under the 
Guilford County law. It was interesting to note the posi- 
tions of these two schools in the distribution of physical 
equipment. In value of buildings and sites one was below 
the median, while the other was near the top of the third 
quartile group. In value of farm stock one was next to the 
lowest, and the other was considerably below the median. 
In size of farms both were above the median, one being 
within the highest quartile. 

In the value of buildings and sites the range in this group 
of schools was from $7,150 to $57,130. The median value 



County High Schools in the South 91 

was $23,200, and the quartile values were, respectively, 
$19,250 and $39,900. 

In the value of farm stock the range was from $300, 
which two of the farms possessed, to $25,585, which the 
school having the greatest value had. The median value 
of farm stock was $900, with $575 and $1,225 as the first 
and third quartile values. 

The largest farm was 172 acres ; the smallest one, 15. 
The median number of acres possessed by a school, was 35 
acres. One-fourth of these schools had farms of less than 
25 acres (the amount specified in the "original law"), and 
one-fourth had 80 acres or more. These facts are sum- 
marized in the following table : 

TABLE XXVI 

Showing Variations in Equipment Values in North Carolina 
Farm-Life High Schools 

Ma.rimum, Miniinnin Median 

Kind of Equipment ■'Value Value Value Oi Q? 

Buildings and site $57,130 $7,150 $23,200 $197250 $39,'900 

Farm stock 25,585 300 900 575 1,225 

Total value of plant 58,830 7,150 23,555 19,625 46,600 

Size of farms (in acres) 172 15 35 21 67 

Summary, Physical Equipment, Farm-Life High 
Schools 

These facts indicate, as did the facts concerning the Ala- 
bama county high schools, a very wide variation between 
the schools in physical equipment. While it would be un- 
wise to assume that there should be a uniform size for the 
school farms or a uniform valuation for equipment, it is, 
on the other hand, very difficult to justify a range like the 
one referred to in the farm-stock values. Just what $300 
in such apparatus could represent under present high val- 
ues in live stock might be difficult to determine. To be 
sure, these farm-stock values are not truly objective ones; 
but grant that they are wholly subjective, which is, per- 
haps, just as far from being the case, and the variation in 
subjective values is wholly unexplained. Should a group 
of farm boys and girls in one county have $300 worth of 
farm stock for demonstration and for other purposes, while 
those in another county have $25,000 worth for the same 
purposes? Another fact which seems to stand out rather 
clearly is that the "original law," which provides in reality 
an agricultural school, with a regulation high school at- 
tached, was not showing superiority of equipment it pro- 
vides for its students over the schools where farm-life ac- 
tivities were departments of regular high schools. 



92 The Administration of 

\ 

Kentucky County High Schools — Legal Basis for 
Equipment 

Kentucky law does not specify what physical equipment 
shall be the basis for the establishment of county high 
schools, the only legal basis for such equipment being found 
implied in the supervision of schools which the State Code 
places in the hands of the State Superintendent, and in the 
power of inspection which is also vested in him. (Com- 
mon School Laws of Kentucky, 1918, Volume 2, No. 2, p. 
19.) In so far as state and university approval set up cer- 
tain minimum requirements for physical equipment, that 
far there may be said to be a semilegal basis for a required 
physical equipment. 

Kentucky County High Schools, "Pure and Simple" — 
Physical Equipment 

In the small group of high schools which have been re- 
ferred to in a previous chapter, the group which Inspector 
Rhoads has named as high schools under the entire man- 
agement of the county board, distinguishing them from 
county high schools, which are such by virtue of a contract 
which they have with the county board to furnish educa- 
tion to the children of the county, but which were not de- 
veloped by and were not exclusively controlled by the county 
boards, the facts will be discussed and then supplemented 
by facts from the remaining county high schools. (Bien- 
nial Report of the Supervisor of High Schools of Kentucky 
for 1917.) 

Kentucky County High Schools, "Pure and Simple" — 
Buildings and Sites 

The facts concerning physical equipment in this group of 
schools, in value of the buildings and sites, showed that one- 
quarter of them had buildings valued at more than $10,000, 
the maximum value being $85,000. The middle fifty per 
cent had values ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. The me- 
dian value was $8,250. At least seven per cent of the group 
had buildings valued at less than $1,000. 

Library 

The highest valued library equipment was $600 ; the low- 
est value, $10. The median value was $75. Fifteen per 
cent had libraries valued at less than $25. The quartile 
range (between the extremes of the middle fifty per cent) 
was from $40 to $200. 



County High Schools in the South 93 

Laboratory 

Laboratory equipment ranged from $400 for one school 
to two others where the equipment was valued at $5. The 
upper one-fourth had equipment ranging from $200 to $400 
in value, but the lower fourth ranged from a little less than 
$50 down to $5. The value of the median equipment was 
$80. 

Equipment for Manual Training and Domestic Science 

Equipment for manual training and for domestic science 
varied from $400 to $5. Half of the group had equipment 
valued at less than $25, the median value of such equipment. 
The lower quartile had a value of less than $10 ; the upper 
quartile ranged from $150 to $400. 

TABLE XXVII. 

Showing Variation in Equipment Values in Certain Kentucky 
County High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Equipment Value Value Value Qi Qs 

Buildings and sites $85,100 $500 $8,250 $2,500 $11,500 

Library 600 10 75 40 200 

Laboratory 400 5 80 43 186 

Domestic science and manual 

training 400 5 25 9 150 

The above table illustrates the facts already described. 
General conclusions are reserved until the facts concerning 
other county high schools in Kentucky are presented. These 
other facts follow: 

Physical Equipment — Buildings and Sites 

In evaluation of buildings and grounds one county high 
school in Kentucky was valued at $400.10, while another had 
as its home one which was worth a little more than $500,000. 
The median county high school and site was valued at 
$11,250. One-fourth of these schools had sites which were 
valued at less than $6,500, while one-fourth of them were 
in places valued at more than $20,000. (Kentucky Bien- 
nial Report, 1917, 127 of 177 schools reporting.) 

Value of Library Equipment 
In library equipment there was one high school listed 
whose equipment was valued at $10. There was another 
in the same class of high schools whose library was valued 
at more than $50,000. The median value of library equip- 
ment was $190. One-fourth of the group had libraries val- 
ued at less than $75, while another fourth ranged from 
$425 to the maximum of more than $50,000. (Ibid., 75 of 
177 schools reporting.) 



94 The Administration of 

Value of Laboratory Equipment 

In one county high school of this group of four-year high 
schools there was one whose laboratory equipment was val- 
ued at $6 and another with $8,900 worth. One-fourth of 
the group had less than $75 worth of apparatus and an- 
other fourth more than $250 worth. The value of the lab- 
oratory in the median first-class county high school was 
$160 (75 schools of Class One, 177 high schools reporting). 
(Biennial Report, Kentucky High Schools, 1917.) 

Equipment for Domestic Science and Manual Training 

There was one county high school which had an equip- 
ment for domestic science and manual training valued at 
one dollar and a half. This was not wholly an isolated 
case, for in the 109 schools reporting such equipment there 
was another school with an equipment valued at $2, five 
with equipment worth $5, one $6, five more at $10, and so 
on, ranging upward to an equipment in manual training 
valued at more than $50,000. One-fourth of these schools 
reported an equipment valued at less than $25 ; another 
fourth had an equipment valued at more than $300 ; while 
the upper five per cent had equipment valued at more than 
$2,500. 

Summary 

All these facts in summary can easily be seen in the fol- 
lowing table. There are several facts which stand out in 
this table. One — variation — has been emphasized in the 
discussions of the high schools in the states already stud- 
ied. It is found here in extreme form between schools, in 
any line of equipment, or between different kinds of equip- 
ment. A second fact that cannot but raise a question to 
the student of secondary school conditions is : How can a 
high school with an equipment valued at $50,000 and one 
with an equipment valued at $1.50 be in the same class? 

TABLE XXVIII 
Table Showing Variations in Kentucky County High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Equipment Value Value Value Oi Qs 

Buildings and sites $500,417 $400 $11,250 $6,500 $20,889 

Library equipment 53,848 10 190 72 425 

Laboratory equipment 8,900 5 160 75 250 

Domestic science and manual 

training 54,951 1.50 60 25 300 

Another fact gathered from a study of this distribution 
of equipment values is, there were two high schools in the 
same city — one for boys and one for girls. The boys' 
school had an. equipment for manual training valued at more 



County High Schools in the South 95 

than $50,000, and for domestic science in the girls' school 
there was an equipment valued at $114. 



Florida County High Schools — Legal Basis for Equipment 

The laws of Florida providing for the establishment of 
county high schools empowered the county board of educa- 
tion to select sites of not less than one-half acre of ground 
in the rural districts, and, as nearly as practicable, that 
amount in urban communities. It was provided that the 
locations were to be "dry, airy, healthful, and pleasant," 
and "convenient of access." This same board was in- 
structed to do whatever was necessary in providing build- 
ings, furnishings, and other equipment, these provisions 
applying to high schools as well as to elementary schools. 
(Digest of the School Laws of Florida, 1915, p. 19.) Under 
special Acts for the establishment of departments of agri- 
culture in the high schools (Ibid., p. 148), the board was 
empowered to acquire land, stock, etc. ; but again the mat- 
ter was left to be worked out specifically by the county 
board. The supervision by the State Department of Edu- 
cation provided for (Ibid., p. 12) another legal basis for 
demanding proper physical equipment. Cooperation with 
the "Smith-Hughes" provided a third check. 

Florida County High Schools — Buildings and Sites 

Forty-five county high schools reported as to buildings 
and sites, showing a range in value in such equipment from 
$2,720 to $125,000. The first twenty-five per cent of the 
schools had homes valued at less than $16,000, while those 
of the highest fourth were valued at from $55,000 to $125,- 
000. The building and site of the median school was val- 
ued at $36,000. 

Library Equipment 

The smallest library equipment in this group of county 
high schools, thirty-nine of which report libraries, was val- 
ued at $85. The median value was $360, with one-fourth 
of the group having libraries valued at less than $258 and 
the highest fourth having values ranging from $650 to the 
maximum value of $2,000. 

Laboratory Equipment 

The smallest investment by any county in laboratory sup- 
plies was $110 (fifty-three schools reporting). Another 
county had $7,500 invested. Twenty-five per cent of the 



96 The Administration of 

schools had equipment valued at $7,150 or more, but an- 
other twenty-five per cent had an equipment for their labo- 
ratories which was valued at less than $390 each. The me- 
dian laboratory equipment for the group was valued at 
$1,000. (Biennial Report, Florida State Superintendent, 
1916; Dr. Thackston's report.) 

Summary — Physical Equipment 

These facts as summarized appear in the following ta- 
ble. While variation is strongly evidenced in library and 
laboratory equipment, it is not so wide in its range as in the 
case just discussed. 

TABLE XXIX 

Showing Variation in Equipment Values for Florida County 
High Schools 

Maxitiiiim Minimum Median 

Kind of Equipment Value Value Value Qr Q^ 

Buildings and sites $125,000 , $2,750 $36,000 $17^000 $54,250 

Library equipment 2,000 85 360 258 650 

Laboratory 7,500 110 1,000 390 1,750 



Louisiana Parish High Schools — Legal Basis for Physical 

Equipment 

Louisiana state law provided for the building and fur- 
nishing of high schools, to be paid from the general state 
fund. The provision was made to specifically include high 
schools, but no minimum amount was named as an initial 
equipment. This was left to be determined by the needs 
of the situation, the wealth of the parish, and other fac- 
tors. (Public School Laws of Louisiana, 1916, p. 116.) 
If any community wished better facilities than those which 
the general fund would provide, they were privileged to 
secure them through voting special taxes or by obtaining 
funds from "any other sources." Through inspection and 
the general supervision which the State Department exer- 
cised over the high schools of the state, it was able, no 
doubt, to insist on certain general standards in physical 
equipment as one of the bases for accrediting and classifi- 
cation. 

Buildings a?id Sites — Louisiana Parish High Schools 

One hundred and fifty-seven parish high schools, which 
were classified as approved high schools (Annual Report, 
Louisiana High Schools, 1916-1917), showed in the distri- 
bution of the value of the buildings and sites a range of 



County High Schools in the South 97 

from $2,400 to $56,000. The first fourth had values, of less 
than $7,875. The middle half had values between this and 
$30,075. The median value for buildings and sites was 
$19,000. 

Fu7'nishings and Equipment 
One hundred and fifty-eight schools from the same group 
(there were 161 schools reported in the above group), re- 
porting on the values of furnishings and equipment, such 
as the term is usually used to include — desks, boards, and 
more or less fixed equipment — show a maximum value of 
$25,000, with the highest twenty-five per cent ranging from 
that down to $1,800. The middle fifty per cent ranged from 
$1,800 to $755, while the lowest twenty-five per cent ran 
down to $200. The value of the median equipment in fur- 
nishings was $990. 

Library Equipment 

One hundred and fifty-eight schools also reported values 
of library equipment. The library representing the small- 
est investment in the group was valued at $25 ; the one rep- 
resenting the highest investment was valued at $4,000. 
One-fourth of the fifty-eight schools had libraries valued at 
less than $130. The middle fifty per cent had libraries 
ranging in value from $130 to $350 ; the upper fourth, from 
that sum upward to $4,000 ; with the highest five per cent 
having libraries valued at $1,000 and up. The value of the 
median library was $227. 

Summary 

These facts concerning the physical equipment of the 
Louisiana parish high schools are illustrated in the follow- 
ing table of summarized data. These data, as have those 
in the other states studied, show rather wide variation in 
values, both in any one kind of equipment studied and be- 
tween the different kinds of equipment. In the matter of 
buildings and sites variation, they were not nearly so ex- 
treme as in the Kentucky county high schools. In library 
equipment the variation was sufficiently extreme to leave 
room for the inference that either the minimum require- 
ment in library equipment used as a basis for accrediting 
was low or that it permitted a wide range in application. 
The inference was strengthened by the statement found in 
the high school report (Annual Report, Louisiana High 
Schools, 1916-1917, p. 13) that seven of those approved 
schools are on the accredited list of the Southern Association 
of Secondary Schools. It is only fair to state, however, 
that the same discussion says that a number of the larger 
schools are now ready to go on the list. 



98 The Administration of 

TABLE XXX 

Showing Variations in Equipment Values in Louisiana Parish 

High Schools 

Ma-vimuni Minimum Median 

Kind of Equipment Value Value Value Oi Q3 

Buildings and sites $156,000 $2,400 $19,000 $7,875 $30,075 

Furnishings 25,000 200 990 755 1,800 

Library equipment 4,000 25 227 130 350 



Tennessee County High Schools — Legal Provision for 
Physical Equipment 

Tennessee law, in delegating to the County Court of the 
various counties the power to establish and maintain county 
high schools (Tennessee School Laws, 1917, p. 28), did not 
provide specific minimum amounts for equipment. A spe- 
cific state fund for maintenance was provided ; but no- 
where, as in the case in Alabama, was it provided that the 
county should provide a prescribed equipment of specified 
value to receive that maintenance aid. In enumerating the 
duties of the High School Inspector (Ibid., p. 21), no refer- 
ence was made to any supervisory powers over buildings, 
sites, etc. Only in the general supervisory powers of the 
State Superintendent and the State Board of Education was 
there implied any legal basis for determining such matters. 
It would seem that the amount of initial equipment to be 
provided for county high schools was left to the general 
powers of the county board. (Ibid., p. 34.) 

Buildings and Sites 

Ninety-four counties in Tennessee reporting in the latest 
high-school report (Biennial Report, State Superintendent 
of Tennessee, 1917-1918) showed values in buildings and 
sites ranging from $10,000 for one county to $770,434 for 
another. A fourth of the counties had property valued at 
more than $94,000 for each school, while the highest five 
per cent were valued at more than $250,000 each. The 
middle fifty per cent ranged from $94,000 to $31,400. The 
median value for such property was $56,250. 

Tennessee County High Schools — Furnishings, Desks, 
Maps, Etc. 

The equipment for the furnishings for each of these 
county high schools ranged for the highest fourth from 
$80,000 to $10,500; the middle fifty per cent, from this 
amount to $3,800. The median value in the ninety-four 
counties was $6,895. 



County High Schools in the South 99 

Libra7'ies 

In library equipment the highest value was $7,075 ; the 
lowest, $48. There were only two counties with library 
equipment valued at more than $5,000 ; one-fourth, however, 
had libraries valued at $2,000 and above. The median 
library equipment was valued at $990, and one-fourth had 
libraries valued at from $530 to a minimum of $48. 

Summary 

These facts, briefly summarized, appear in the following 
table : 

TABLE XXXI 
Showing Variations in Values of Tennessee County High Schools 

Ma.riiniiin Minimum Median Qi Q^ 

Buildings and sites $770,434 $10,600 $56,250 $31,400 $94,045 

Furnishings 80,000 800 6,895 3,800 10,500 

Library 7,075 48 990 500 2,000 

Variation is again apparent in the foregoing table. Es- 
pecially regarding library equipment is the range great. 
The same questions occur which occur in the studies of 
other states. It is difficult to understand how an approved 
four-year high school can have only $48 worth of equip- 
ment for library purposes. 



Physical Equipment in the Remaining Group 

In the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Mary- 
land, and Texas it was thought undesirable in this study to 
go into a detailed study of the physical equipment of county 
high schools, such as has been made in the first two groups 
of schools. In this last group of states county high schools 
have not been developed as a separate administrative or- 
ganization, as in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, nor 
have they developed where the county was the unit of ad- 
ministration during their development. On the contrary, 
in at least one state the county control, while embracing the 
high schools of the county, has developed as a centralization 
of administrative control since the development of the high 
school. In at least two other of the states in the group the 
control by the county is very nominal. In not one of the 
five was the county high school developed as either a special 
administrative type for reaching a particular group or for 
emphasizing some particular curriculum. Data for phys- 
ical equipment would necessarily involve many values not 
high-school ones and many others hardly to be called 



100 The Administration of 

"county." It is, then, to avoid what might seem an "un- 
called-for" interpretation of these high-school conditions 
that these states are omitted. 

Summary and Conclusions 

There are several conclusions which the facts just studied 
seem to indicate. First among these in prominence is in- 
dicated by the facts regarding variations. The facts stud- 
ied show the physical equipment under two sets of condi- 
tions — one, where the state has required a minimum phys- 
ical equipment as the basis for the establishment of the 
county high school, as in Alabama ; and, tivo, where such a 
requirement was not made. There are abundant illustra- 
tions in the facts shown that variation is far greater, and 
minimum conditions are more apt to be bad where such a 
requirement is not made. There is no thought that equal 
physical equipment is necessary to provide that equality of 
educational opportunity which is accepted as the great un- 
derlying motive in forming county high schools. It is ac- 
cepted without question in this study that such other factors 
as school population, economic and social conditions must 
be considered. On the other hand, it is hard to think of an 
approved county high school housed in an equipment where 
buildings and grounds are valued at $400. The inference 
can but be that the school is not housed. This condition 
could not exist in a school where, as in Alabama, a minimum 
physical equipment is required. One conclusion is that very 
extreme variation, especially where minimum equipment 
will be found, is controlled in a large part where a mini- 
mum physical equipment is prescribed. 

Again, in library equipment, where twenty-five per cent 
of the county high schools have library equipments to the 
value of $70 worth, it is hard to believe that the students 
of these schools are enjoying many library privileges ; and 
when the equipment runs down to less than what the re- 
quired texts in their courses ordinarily cost, the factors of 
school population, etc., mentioned above, disappear, and 
prima-facie evidence of lack of opportunity seems pre- 
sented. From $10 to $25, even $50, can furnish very few 
needed references, while less than $100 valuation could not 
include a single standard encyclopedia. Yet in at least one 
state studied twenty-five per cent of the county high schools 
in the approved group have libraries valued at less than that 
sum. To talk of equipment in manual training or domestic 
science in terms of less than $25 value seems certainly to 
talk of things which do not exist. Is it fair to class as 
equipment in domestic science materials whose value is less 



County High Schools in the South 101 

than the amount required to furnish so necessary an article 
as the "range" in such an equipment? Another question 
which will come and which 'Vill not down" is: Are these 
things so much the result of economic necessity as they are 
the result of the lack of certain required equipment? The 
facts continue to show that where the classification of high 
schools by classes is fixed by law and where there are no 
prescriptions beyond the number of years taught to be rec- 
ognized as an approved school entitled to share state aid, 
these undesirable conditions relating to lack of equipment 
referred to exist. The undesirability of a second set of 
standards for accrediting, which demand less rigorously 
necessary equipment than that required by the Southern 
Commmission, is repeatedly shown in the failure to over- 
come the paucity of library and laboratory equipment so 
often encountered. When a state by legislation clearly de- 
fines the standards of approval for receiving state aid, 
plainly ignoring this paucity, the question very naturally 
arises as to whether a desire to profit individually from the 
state treasury or a carefully formulated policy aimed to 
equalize conditions throughout the state by bringing out a 
maximum of local support and effort, supplemented by state 
aid, is actuating the counties in their secondary-school poli- 
cies. In brief, the facts show that a set of standards for 
state approval which requires less than is required by the 
Southern Commission is accompanied with undesirable fea- 
tures in necessary high-school equipment. 

There is one other conclusion which the facts studied in 
this chapter seem to warrant : Too little emphasis is placed 
by too many county high schools on library and laboratory 
equipments compared to other phases of equipment. No 
matter how carefully other factors may be looked after, a 
maximum of return cannot reasonably be expected under 
this handicap. It must mean the teaching of science by 
abandoned methods — namely, just textbook study; and it 
must mean teaching English and history without parallel 
readings from other sources than the text. 

Briefly, then, there is too little emphasis, too often, on 
necessary equipment. It simply is not fair to the students 
of these schools to work under such plainly unequal condi- 
tions. It is far more undemocratic than it would be to meet 
standards imposed from without. Is it not the resultant of 
the old frontier concept of democracy, which was individ- 
ualism? It surely does not take into account the broader 
concept of developing to the maximum capacity the indi- 
vidual for the betterment of the group. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 
The Student Population in County High Schools 

Importance of Studying the Distribution of Students 

Inglis considers a study of student population one of the 
most effective ways of approach to the greater problem of 
comparing what different high schools are offering in the 
way of opportunities in secondary education to the school 
population they serve. (Inglis, Principles of Secondary 
Education, p. 121.) Going further into this position, Mr. 
Inglis points out that the chief conditioning factor in de- 
termining the number of teachers per high school is the 
number of students which attend the same school. One of 
the difficulties in the way of a program of studies including 
a large range of desirable courses is lack of teaching force. 
This difficulty, if the position of Mr. Inglis is correctly 
taken, would fall back on the doubtless more fundamental 
facts of student population. There are other facts which 
will be apparent from the study of how pupils are distrib- 
uted among the different years of high-school work. The 
holding power of the school is pretty definitely shown by 
the relative number in the different years. Of course the 
reasons for elimination are not brought out by this distri- 
bution, but the extent of the elimination is approximated. 
Briefly, a study of the facts of the distribution of pupils 
showing the range of variation is a basis for the distribu- 
tion of teachers, and a study of the distribution by years is 
indicative of the extent of elimination, or, stated positively, 
the holding power of the school. 

Method of Studying Distribution 

In the discussion of this distribution, the method already 
used, of presenting only the summaries and a discussion of 
the data, is followed. As in the other cases, the individual 
data, when ranked and tabulated, formed long tables, which 
were summarized by taking from them the things desired 
for the discussion — namely, the range showing the vari- 
ation from maximum to minimum, the central tendency 
expressed by the median, and the quartile range. Through- 
out the discussion Professor Bobbett's definition of the 
"safety zone," or normal range, is accepted as the ones 
grouping between the first and the third quartiles. As a 
result, chief attention centers around the frequencies which 
occasion the greatest variation. 



County High Schools in the South 103 

In studying the different county high-school systems the 
same grouping is observed which has been used in the other 
chapters. The emphasis is even more strongly placed on 
those systems which have been developed under county con- 
trol for the purpose of reaching those students who are not 
reached by existing administrative units, or for the other 
purpose of emphasizing some particular course or curricu- 
lum. In fact, there is no desire in this study to investigate 
the distribution of student population in any system where 
county administration is either nominal or where the system 
of secondary education has been developed and county ad- 
ministration added after the distribution of student popu- 
lation has become established under another system of ad- 
ministration. 

Distribution of Students by Schools in the Mississippi 
Agricultural High Schools 

There were in 1917 in the county agricultural high 
schools of Mississippi 5,346 pupils. (Mississippi Biennial 
Report, 1916-1917.) A study of the distribution of pupils 
among the schools showed this distribution was not fully 
represented by the average alone. There was a range in 
the variation of the number of pupils per school from 163 
to 44. Twenty-five per cent of the schools reporting 
showed more than 121 pupils, which was the number form- 
ing the upper limit of the third quartile. Fifty per cent 
had between 76 and 121 pupils, and only twenty-five per 
cent had less than 75 students, with only one school with 
less than 50 students. When it is considered that a num- 
ber of the schools were building and that those of another 
portion of them were very young, the variation seems to be 
not very wide. This is especially true of the middle fifty 
per cent, which groups rather compactly around the central 
tendency. The facts regarding the distribution of students 
seem to indicate that the schools are meeting with ready 
and rather equal favor — a fact that is corroborated by the 
High School Inspector's report. (Part II, Bulletin No. 10, 
1917, County Agricultural High Schools, Mississippi De- 
partment of Education.) 

Distribution of Pupils by Years in These Schools 

A study of the distribution of these pupils by years shows 
the typical first-year class, as shown by the median of the 
group, to be one of thirty pupils. The typical second-year 
class was thirty-three pupils, the typical third-year class 
was twenty-two, and the typical fourth-year class was sev- 



104 The Administration of 

enteen pupils. The range of variation in the first-year 
group was from seven to fifty-one pupils. In the second- 
year group the smallest class was twelve, while the largest 
was eighty. In the third-year group there was only half 
so many, just six in the smallest and thirty-nine in the larg- 
est. In the final year, the fourth, the maximum class had 
thirty-two pupils, while the minimum had only seven. 
Fifty per cent of the schools had first-year classes whose 
numbers were between eighteen and forty-three. The same 
middle half in the second-year classes was between twenty- 
five and thirty-nine in number. In the third-year class a 
fourth had less than a dozen members, while another fourth 
had more than twenty-seven, leaving the middle group be- 
tween these two numbers. Again, in the fourth -year 
classes only a fourth had numbers less than a dozen, with 
another fourth having numbers greater than twenty, the 
middle half then being between twelve and twenty-two. 

Summary 

These facts summarized can be tabulated as shown in the 
following table. Columns 1 and 2 indicate the rather uni- 
form conditions regarding maximum and minimum size 
classes. This rather uniform condition makes the more 
significant column 3, showing elimination by years in the 
high school. 

TABLE XXXII 

Showing Variations in Size of Classes in Mississippi County 
High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Sise Class Size Class Qi Q3 

First-year group 51 7 30 18 43 

Second-year group 80 , 12 33 25 39 

Third-year group 39 6 22 12 27 

Fourth-year group 32 7 17 12 22 



Distribution of Students, North Carolina Farm-Life 
High School 

In 1917 there were twenty-one farm-life high schools in 
North Carolina — a fact which has already been noted in 
another chapter. For the same year there were 1,701 pu- 
pils enrolled in these schools, an average of eighty-one pu- 
pils per school. A study of the distribution of total enroll- 
ments in these schools shows these facts. (Tenth Annual 
Report, State High School Inspector of Public Schools, 
North Carolina, 1917.) The largest of these high schools 
had an enrollment of 165, and the smallest an enrollment 
of twenty-six pupils. The median school in the group had 



County High Schools in the South 105 

an enrollment of eighty-two, and the middle fifty per cent 
was between enrollments of fifty-eight and 128 pupils. 
About one-third of these high schools had more than 100 
pupils enrolled, and only about one-sixth of them had less 
than fifty pupils. Four-fifths of them had enrollments be- 
tween fifty and 150 pupils. 

Distribution of Students by Yea7's in These Schools 

In the distribution of pupils in the first-year classes in 
this group of schools the largest class in any of the schools 
had an enrollment of sixty pupils. Twenty-five per cent of 
the group had classes between forty-four and sixty. The 
next, or .the middle fifty per cent, are between forty-four 
and nineteen, with the last twenty-five per cent ranging 
from nineteen to eight. The median first-year class was 
thirty-nine in number. The largest second-year class was 
fifty-two and the smallest seven. One-fourth of them were 
between fifty-two and thirty-nine ; one-half, between thirty- 
nine and eleven ; and the remaining fourth, between eleven 
and eight. The median class of the second-year classes had 
eighteen pupils enrolled. In the third-year classes the max- 
imum number decreased to thirty-nine, and the lower limit 
of the upper fourth was only twenty-nine. Between the 
quartiles the numbers were twenty-nine to eleven, group- 
ing around fifteen, for the miedian number of the group. 
The minimum number decreased to five. In the fourth year 
the maximum class was forty-three, but the minimum class 
in this group of fourth-year classes had one pupil only. 
The quartiles in this group were fourteen and five. The 
median was nine. 

Summary 

These facts of the distribution of the student population 
in these high schools are illustrated in the following table : 

TABLE XXXIII 

Showing Variation in Size of Classes by Years in North 
Carolina Farm-Life High Schools 

Maxim um Min imiim Med ia n 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qi Qg 

First-year group 60 8 39 16 44 

Second-ydar group 52 7 18 11 39 

Third-year group 39 5 IS 11 29 

Fourth-year group 43 1 9 5 14 

In the foregoing table, column 3 again, evaluated in part 
from the character of the other columns, partly indicates 
the elimination which has taken place in this group of 
schools. The other columns show the general character of 
the distribution. Columns 1 and 2, when any pair of val- 



106 The Administration of 

ues is compared, show the variation in the size of the classes 
by years within this group of schools. Columns 4 and 5, 
when any pair of values is considered, show the range in 
variation for the middle fifty per cent, ''normal group," in 
any year in this group of schools. 



Distribution of Students in Kentucky County High 
Schools, by Schools 

In the small group of Kentucky high schools which have 
been developed under county board management, and (Re- 
port, Supervisor of High Schools, Kentucky, 1917) which are 
under county board control and largely supported by county 
funds, the distribution of the students show : That the size 
of the enrollments varies from 127 to ten. One-fourth of 
the schools vary in enrollment from 127 to half that num- 
ber, the third quartile position being sixty-four. The next 
half varies from that number down to twenty-five, while 
the middle point in the third division is the median number 
thirty-eight. More than half this group of schools have 
enrollments less than fifty in number, a fourth of them 
being less than twenty-five. There is only one school hav- 
ing an enrollment of more than 100. On the whole, con- 
sidering the distribution of schools by total enrollment, 
there is a rather wide range of variation shown. Twenty- 
five per cent of the schools with an enrollment of less than 
twenty-five seems a relatively large number of small high 
schools. 

Distribution of Students in Four-Year High Schools 

In the first-year classes of this group of schools the small- 
est class had an enrollment of only four students, while half 
of the group have enrollments of twenty-five and less. The 
median of the distribution is twenty. The fifty per cent 
between the quartiles ranges from thirteen to twenty-seven. 
Only two schools have more than fifty students enrolled in 
their first-year classes. The maximum class enrolled had 
fifty-six students. ' In the second-year classes the smallest 
class had only half as many as the minimum class in the 
other group. There are only two enrolled in it, and there 
were three classes in this second-year group which had less 
than five enrolled. The median was only seven, and the 
middle half was between the quartile values of five and 
seventeen. Only four classes had more than twenty en- 
rolled, and the largest had thirty-one pupils. In the third- 
year classes the least one had one student enrolled, and halt 



County High Schools in the South 107 

of these classes had less than ten students. The middle fifty 
per cent of them was between quartile values of five for Ql 
and fifteen for Q3. The median number was ten. There 
was only one third-year class enrolling more than twenty 
students, and it had twenty-one. In the final group, the 
fourth-year classes, there were two classes each of which 
had only one student. Twenty-five per cent had three and 
less than three. The median of this group is seven. The 
middle group boundaries were three and twelve. The larg- 
est class had twenty enrolled, and there were only twenty- 
five per cent with an enrollment of a dozen or more. 

Summary 

The facts of the distribution of students of the Kentucky 
county high schools are summarized in the following table : 

TABLE XXXIV 

Showing Variations in Size of Classes by Years in Certain 
Kentucky County High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qi Qs 

First-year class 56 4 20 13 27 

Second-year class 31 3 7 5 17 

Third-year class 21 1 10 5 15 

Fourth-year class 20 1 7 3 12 

There are two facts shown rather clearly by the forego- 
ing table. The first horizontal row shows a rather wide 
variation in the size of the schools, measured by student 
population. Column 3 seems to indicate rather poor hold- 
ing power of the schools. Columns 4 and 5 show that for 
the middle fifty per cent the variation of the extreme from 
the central tendency is wide. 



Distribution of Students in the Alabama County High 
Schools, by Schools 

In 1917 the reports from the Alabama county high 
schools showed (Bulletin No. 58, Alabama State Depart- 
ment, Report of Inspector of Secondary Schools for 1916- 
1917) that the largest county high school in Alabama had 
an enrollment of 206. Ten of the fifty-seven schools re- 
porting had an enrollment of 150 or more. The twenty- 
five per cent having the highest enrollment were above 130. 
The middle fifty per cent, which Professor Dimmitt has 
defined as the ''normal zone" in his report, were between 
130 and seventy. The twenty-five per cent of the schools 
with the smallest enrollment ranged from seventy to the 



108 The Administration of 

minimum enrollment in the group, which was thirty-seven 
students. The median enrollment for this group of schools 
was ninety-five. There was a total enrollment in these 
schools for the season quoted of 5,887 pupils. 

Distribution of Students by Years in These Schools 

In a distribution of students by years in these schools 
the largest first-year class had forty-four students enrolled. 
Half of the first-year classes had thirty or more enrolled. 
One-fourth of them had forty or more. The normal group 
ranges from a minimum of twenty to a maximum of thirty- 
seven. The median enrollment in these first-year classes 
was twenty-nine. One-fourth of them had fewer than 
twenty students enrolled, and the smallest class had only 
fourteen students. In the group of second-year classes the 
range in variation was from six in the smallest class to 
thirty-two in the largest. The range in the middle group 
was from seventeen the first quartile to twenty-five the 
third one. The median size class of the second-year classes 
was twenty. In the third year of the high school the maxi- 
mum class had decreased in size one-half from that of the 
previous year. The median class in this group had only 
twelve students. The quartile positions were at nine and 
fifteen. This meant that the normal zone, which in the 
first-year group had its smallest class (twenty) , later had 
enrolled only half as many in the class occupying that posi- 
tion. The largest class in it in the first year was twenty- 
nine; in the third year it was fifteen. The smallest class 
in the first-year distribution was fourteen ; in the third year 
it was four. In the fourth-year classes there were four 
with a maximum number of twelve students enrolled. The 
smallest class was slightly larger than the smallest class in 
the third-year group, having five enrolled. The median in 
this group had only nine students, and the quartile positions 
were seven and eleven. These facts were seen in the follow- 
ing summary table : 

TABLE XXXV 

Showing Variation in Sizes of Classes by Years in the Alabama 
County High Schools 

Ma-vimum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qi Qs 

First-year class 44 • 14 29 19 37 

Second-vear class 32 6 20 17 24 

Third-year class 16 4 11 9 15 

Fourth-year class 12 5 9 " 7 11 

Studying column 3, the holding power of the Alabama 
high schools seemed far from satisfactory. The median 
class in the final year was less than one-third as large as 



County High Schools in the South 109 

the median class in the first year. This was, perhaps, the 
most important point brought out by the table. 



Distribution of Students in Tennessee County High 
Schools, by Schools 

The largest county high school in Tennessee enrolled 960 
pupils. The smallest one considered in this group as a fully 
approved county high school enrolled thirty. There were 
seventy-one schools reported in this group. (Tennessee 
High School Inspector's Report, 1917-1918.) Twenty-five 
per cent of these county high schools have 225 and more 
pupils, while another twenty-five per cent had less than 
fifty-seven. Half of the high schools had enrollments be- 
tween the quartiles 216 and fifty-eight. One-fifth the 
schools had less than fifty students, and about one-sixteenth 
have more than 500 students. The median school had 121 
students. 

Distribution of Students in These Schools by Years 

In the first-year high-school class in these schools the 
classes showed a range of enrollments from 542 to fourteen. 
The fourth of the classes having the highest enrollment 
ranged from 130 to the maximum given above. The mid- 
dle fifty per cent ranged from 130 to forty, the median class 
having seventy-five enrolled. In the second-year classes in 
these schools the maximum class found had an enrollment 
of 436 pupils. The upper quartile had seventy-five as the 
lower limit. The lowest quartile, which had the minimum 
class of twelve, ranged upward to twenty. The median 
class in this second-year group had forty students. About 
one-sixth of the classes enrolled over 100 pupils. The larg- 
est third-year class had 239 pupils; the smallest, less than 
a half dozen. The typical class in this year's group ("typ- 
ical" defined as median) had thirty pupils. In the fourth- 
year class sizes varied from 140 to three students. The 
typical class had about eighteen. These facts summarized 
appear in 

TABLE XXXVI 

Showing Variation in Sizes of Class by Years in Tennessee 
County High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qi Qs 

First-year class 542 14 75 40 130 

Second-year class 436 10 40 20 75 

Third-year class 239 6 30 12 52 

Fourth-vear class 140. 3 18 9 28 



110 The Administration of 

Distrihution of Students in the Florida County High 

Schools 

In Florida, as has already been noted in previous discus- 
sions, all the high schools of the county were county high 
schools, in that the real administrative authority was the 
county board of education. In this discussion only those 
county high schools belonging to the first group (four-year 
high schools, with three or more teachers) were used. In 
the distribution of student population in these schools, when 
broken up into quarters, the first quarter ranged from a 
maximum of 576 students to an enrollment of 100, the num- 
ber at the third quartile position. In this upper quartile 
there was only six per cent (of the entire distribution) 
which had enrollments of more than 250. From 100 then 
the next quarter ran down to sixty-nine, the median posi- 
tion, the next quarter decreasing to forty-eight, the first 
quartile position ; while the smallest quarter reached a min- 
imum of twenty students, establishing a range of from 576 
to twenty students. (Florida High School Inspector's Re- 
port, 1916.) 

Florida County High Schools — Distrihution by Years 

In the first-year classes of these high schools, in the larg- 
est class there were 261 pupils; in the smallest one, only 
eight. In the second-year class the largest class was 183 ; 
in the smallest, five. In the third-year group the maximum 
decreased to 120, and in the fourth-year class it still further 
decreased to eighty-five. The smallest class in the third 
year had three students enrolled ; in the fourth year it had 
only two. In the boundaries of the middle fifty-per-cent 
zone, the upper boundary, the third quartile position started 
at forty-two. In the second classes it was thirty; in the 
third, twenty-two ; and in the fourth it had decreased to 
nineteen. The lower boundary of the first quartile started 
in the first-year classes at eighteen ; was eleven in the sec- 
ond, eight in the third, and dropped to five in the fourth- 
year classes. The medians in the different groups were: 
In the first-year classes, twenty-five ; in the second, sixteen ; 
in the third, thirteen ; and in the fourth year it was eight. 



County High Schools in the South 111 

Summary of the Distribution of Florida County High 

Schools 

In summary the facts are represented in the following 
table : 

TABLE XXXVII 

Table Showing Variations in Sizes of Classes by Years in 
Florida County High Schools 

Maximum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qi Q^ 

First-year class 261 8 2S 18 42 

Second-year class 183 5 16 30 12 

Third-year class 120 3 13 22 8 

Fourth-year class 85 2 8 19 5 

In the county high schools of Florida here cited the me- 
dian size class in the last year of high school was one-third 
the median number in the first year. Of course this was 
not an absolute indication of elimination, although it is 
often used as an indicator of this. If it can be shown that 
there has been a very great increase in enrollment in the 
number of those entering the first-year classes of the high 
school during the past three years, column 3 might remain 
as it is without indicating elimination. If, on the other 
hand, the number was fairly constant during those three 
years, it means that two students were eliminated, while 
one was held to complete the course. On the basis of the 
principle quoted from Inglis at the beginning of the chap- 
ter, if the number of the students is the chief determining 
factor in the establishment of the number of instructors 
and other factors of equipment, it follows that there is a 
rather wide range of opportunities offered by schools rang- 
ing in enrollment from 576 to twenty, or even with the 
"normal zone" limits of from 100 to forty-eight. 



Distribution of Students in Louisiana Parish High Schools 

In Louisiana, high schools throughout the parish are 
classed as parish high schools, because the administrative 
control is lodged in the parish board. In studying the dis- 
tribution of students in these schools, as in other cases, only 
four-year schools are used. (Louisiana High School Re- 
port, 1916-1917.) In the middle group of these, which 
might be said to constitute the typical high schools, the 
range in the number of students enrolled was from seventy- 
six, the third quartile, to thirty-five, the first one. The 
median of the distribution at the central point of this group 
was fifty-two. A typical parish high school might, then, 
be said to enroll from thirty-five to seventy-five pupils, with 



112 The Administration of 

the central tendency at fifty. Outside the typical group, 
the twenty-five per cent of the parish high schools which 
were largest range upward to a maximum enrollment of 
718, between eleven and twelve per cent having more than 
100 pupils. From the first quartile they range down to a 
minimum enrollment of seventeen, ten per cent having less 
than twenty-five students enrolled in all four classes. 

Distribution of Students by Years in These Schools 

The typical first-year class in these parish high schools 
lies between thirty and twelve in the number of students it 
enrolled, the middle point being twenty. Above thirty 
there are in the upper quartile twenty-five per cent of the 
classes with a range of enrollment of from thirty, to 298 
students in the maximum case. Between two and three per 
cent of the classes had more than 100 students. Below 
twelve there are classes running down to a minimum of two 
students, at least ten per cent enrolling less than ten stu- 
dents. In the second-year classes the maximum enroll- 
ment was 148. In the third year that number increased to 
188, but decreased again in the fourth year to eighty-four. 
The minimum number in the second year was two ; in both 
the third and fourth year it was one. The typical class as 
determined by the median was fourteen, in the second-year 
class. In the third and fourth-year class it was nine and 
eight, respectively. The range from which typical classes 
might be chosen in the second-year group was by the quar- 
tile points twenty-three to nine; in the third year it was 
thirteen to six ; and in the last year it was from fourteen 
to six. 

Summary 

Summarized in tabulated form, these facts appear in the 
following table : 

TABLE XXXVIII 

Showing Variations in Sizes of Classes in Louisiana Parish 
High Schools 

Ma-vimum Minimum Median 

Kind of Group Size Class Size Class Size Class Qf . Qs 

First-year class 298 2 20 12 29 

Second-year class 148 2 14 9 23 

Third-year class 188 1 9 6 16 

Fourth-year class 84 1 8 6 15 

A study of this table emphasizes the same two points 
which have been pointed out in the study of the distribution 
of students in the county high schools already discussed — 
wide variation in the number of students and a decrease in 
the size of the median class as it advances toward the final 
years of the high-school program. 



County High Schools in the South 113 

Distribution of Students in the Other States Having 
County Boards 

In the other states of the South which have been included 
in this discussion and which have county boards of educa- 
tion the distribution of students is not discussed in this 
study, for reasons already assigned. The high schools 
which they include were not developed by county boards of 
education, and it would be to include another type of high 
school — one which represented another form of adminis- 
tration, control, and development than the county form — 
to include them. To "stick to text," then, they are not in- 
cluded. 

Distribution of Student Population by Schools 

In a tabulated summary the facts which have been dis- 
cussed concerning the distribution of the student popula- 
tion in the county high schools by states appear in the fol- 
lowing : 

TABLE XXXIX 

Showing Variations in Sizes of County High Schools in 
States Studied 

Maxim)im Minimiini Median 

Sice Si;:e Size 

Name of Group School ' School School Qi Qs 

Tennessee county high schools 960 30 121 58 216 

Louisiana parish high schools 718 17 52 35 76 

Florida county high schools 576 20 69 48 100 

Alabama county high schools 206 37 95 70 130 

North Carolina farm-life high schools__ 165 26 82 58 128 

Mississippi agricultural high schools • 163 44 96 75 121 

Kentucky county high schools 127 10 38 25 64 

Summary AND Conclusions 

A study of the distribution of the student population 
shows, in elimination, making no allowance for increasing 
attendance, which it seems fair enough to assume would be 
shown to some extent in median classes, all years, these 
conditions: In Mississippi agricultural high schools the 
elimination is not nearly so heavy as was found by either 
Thorndike (Thorndike, E. L., The EHmination of Pupils 
from School, Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 4, 1917, pp. 
11-45) or by Strayer (Strayer, G. D., Age and Grade Census 
of Schools and Colleges, Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 
5, 1911, pp, 6, 135, 136) in studies of elimination, includ- 
ing, respectively, twenty-three and 133 cities. On the basis 
of Thorndike's figures, the median class in the fourth-year 
group in these would have only half the number enrolled 
that it has, and by Strayer's figures the number would be 
materially reduced. North Carolina high schools, on the 
other hand, make a materially worse showing than was 



114 The Administration of 

found in either of the studies quoted. In the Kentucky- 
schools the holding power was about the average of the re- 
sults found in these two studies. Alabama corresponds al- 
most exactly to Thorndike's figures, while Tennessee shows 
greater elimination than was found in either study. Flor- 
ida also closely approximates the findings of Thorndike, 
while the schools of Louisiana approximate the average of 
the two. In the number of pupils per school Tennessee is 
the state where the median size county high school is larger 
than the average for high schools in all-sized communities 
as worked out by Inglis. (Inglis, Principles of Secondary 
Education, pp. 120.) In all but two cases, however — Louis- 
iana and Kentucky — the median size school is larger than 
the average for high schools in communities under 8,000. 
These would seem to indicate that the county high school 
has not materially improved holding power for its students 
over the other administrative types of high schools, and 
that it presents a wide variation in the number of pupils 
enrolled per school. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

The Teaching Force in Certain Groups of County 
High Schools 

Importance of the Preparation of Teachers 

The recognition of the number of and the preparation of 
the teachers of the country, as two of the most important 
factors in the betterment of the educational conditions of 
the country, has been strongly proclaimed by various agen- 
cies. One of the most forceful of these statements was 
found in the wording and the contemplated action of the 
bill which, in the last national Congress, was introduced 
with the purpose of creating a department of the national 
government to administer public education. (S. 4987, 
Sixty-Fifth Congress, Second Session; a bill introduced in 
the Senate of the United States, October 10, 1918, by Mr. 
Hoke Smith, etc.) Section 16 of that bill, in attempting to 
provide closer cooperation between the states and the na- 
tional government in the preparing of teachers, appropri- 
ated three-twentieths of the $100,000,000 annual appropri- 
ation, contemplated as a national aid to education, for the 
specific purpose of training teachers. Not only was this 
sum set aside for this task, but the unit of apportionment 
chosen was the number of teachers the state already had in 
service compared to the total number in the country. This 
apportionment for teacher training was not the only allot- 
ment divided on this basis, but more than half of the whole 
annual appropriation was to be distributed in this way. 
This bill emphasized the importance of both the number 
and the training of the teachers by a great national force 
outside the ranks of the school people. It is for this reason 
alone that it is quoted — to shotv the growing force of that 
recognition. This recognition is strengthened by the rein- 
troduction of the same principle in the bill before the pres- 
ent session of Congress. (Sixty-Sixth Congress, House Bill 
by Mr. Towner.) 

Importance of Legal Qualifications for Teachers 

So long as American education is administered on a state 
basis, so long will the legal requirement of teachers for cer- 
tification be relatively an important consideration for each 
state. Much has been done by voluntary teachers' associ- 
ations to raise the standards of preparation required of 
teachers. Inspection by state universities and other insti- 



116 The Administration of 

tutions of higher learning, and the work of such organiza- 
tions as the North Central Association and of the Southern 
Commission of Colleges and Secondary Schools, have added 
much more; but the lower fringe of professional prepara- 
tion can be made even only by legislation which fixes mini- 
mum requirement in the way of legally required qualifica- 
tions. There are two ways of securing this. One is to 
make a certain definite quantitative requirement in the way 
of a degree intended to certify a certain number of years 
in training; the other method is to require what is sup- 
posedly a qualitative performance of testing knowledge 
through examination of the different kinds of subject-mat- 
ter to be taught and ability to answer questions about the 
theoretic principles of teaching. Historically, the last- 
named plan is the older, being the one on which schools 
have depended. 

Method of Study 

In this study of teachers the emphasis is placed on the 
legally required qualifications in the different states. 
Largely for illustrative purposes, a few cases of the distri- 
bution of teachers per school for a state, and in some cases 
the salary distribution, are noted. For the same reasons 
illustrations in the distribution of the different types of 
training are given, but for the reason given in the preceding 
paragraph the emphasis is placed on the requirements set 
forth in the law. 

Qualifications of Mississippi Agricultural High-School 
Teachers — Legal Requirements 

It was found that all who teach in the agricultural 
high schools in Mississippi were required by law to pass 
an examination in the "free-school studies" and the sub- 
jects they were required to teach in said schools. (School 
Laws of Mississippi, 1918, p. 99.) These examinations 
were held at the same time and in the same way that other 
teachers' examinations were held. There was a state 
Board of Examiners, consisting of three members, who 
aided the State Superintendent in preparing the examina- 
tion questions for the teachers of the state and who graded 
all papers for professional or state licenses. In the test of 
"free-school studies" the history of Mississippi was in- 
cluded. This, perhaps, would serve to keep outside talent 
from competing for positions in the schools, as the college 
graduate outside Mississippi usually would probably know 
next to nothing of the history of that state. If this phase 
of the examination was literally interpreted, it would seem 



County High Schools in the South 117 

calculated to deprive Mississippi of outside blood, which is 
generally conceded to be a condition to be deplored in the 
teaching profession. There was another feature of the 
Code that is very noticeable, and that is the distinction le- 
gally made between the forms of certification. These dis- 
tinctions really put the agricultural high-school license in 
a class between the license for elementary schools and the 
professional license. Examination in algebra, geometry, 
Caesar, and Virgil, and any other subjects which the state 
board may add, were required of all who apply for this 
license. The enactments of the last Legislature (Laws of 
1918, Chapter 226) provided that the State Board of Ex- 
aminers may grant a state teachers' license to college grad- 
uates where nine hours of education was included in the 
graduate's work, and to those completing the sophomore 
year in colleges in the state requiring fourteen units en- 
trance if those students have had six hours of education. 
Since this will permit the issuing of licenses to college grad- 
uates without examination, it seems that it would remove 
the objectionable features already referred to in the laws 
of 1914. 

Qualifi.cafions of North Carolina County High-School 
Teachers — Legal Requirements 

Every teacher in North Carolina, principal, supervisor, 
superintendent, assistant superintendent, in every public 
elementary and secondary school, both urban and rural, 
must be certified through a state board of "examiners and 
institute conductors." (Chapter 146, Public School Laws 
of 1917, an Act to establish a State Board of Examiners 
and Institute Conductors, Sections 1 and 2.) Teachers in 
the farm-life county high schools and in the other county 
high schools come under these general provisions. In ad- 
dition to these qualifications (Chapter 71, Public Laws of 
1911, an Act to provide for the establishment and main- 
tenance of County Farm-Life High Schools, and for the pro- 
motion of Agriculture and Home Making, Section 12), no 
person could be employed as principal of one of the farm- 
life high schools who did not hold a teacher's certificate on 
all required subjects except Latin, Greek, and the modern 
languages. Further, in addition to these, a principal must 
have an additional certificate from the State Board of Ex- 
aminers or a statement from the president of the Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College which certifies that the prin- 
cipal has satisfied them that by special training and prac- 
tical experience he was especially fitted for the position. 
In the case of a teacher in the department of home making 



118 The Administration of 

it was necessary to have the high-school certificate, and in 
the case of the principal the Latin, Greek, and the modern 
language were omitted. It was necessary for this teacher 
to satisfy both the board of examiners and the president of 
the State Normal and Industrial College that by special 
training and practical experience she was especially fitted 
for this position. The law did not especially provide that 
the teacher in the county farm-life high school should be a 
college graduate. The emphasis seemed to be on the cer- 
tification. However, that clause which required the appli- 
cant to satisfy the president of the Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College or the president of the Normal and Indus- 
trial School that because of special training, etc., he was 
especially fitted, might easily be interpreted to mean being 
a college graduate. That this was actually the case was 
borne out by the actual situation in these schools, where all 
but two of the teachers in these schools were agricultural 
college graduates. (Data furnished by Director of Voca- 
tional Education, Prof. T. E. Browne, in answer to a letter 
addressed to him, April, 1919.) 

Qualifications of Alabama Teachers in County High 
Schools — Legal Requirements 

Certification of high-school teachers in Alabama might 
be secured in either of two ways. The appHcant might 
secure a first-grade certificate by passing an examination 
in the common-school branches, the history of Alabama 
(history of Alabama not listed as one of the common-school 
branches, because it is not such outside the state of Ala- 
bama), and in algebra, geometry, physics, elementary psy- 
chology, the school laws of Alabama, advanced English, 
and, if it was to be used as a life certificate, history of edu- 
cation. This certificate would be made a life certificate 
when the holder has taught five years "with a high degree 
of efficiency." The examination was held three times 
yearly on certain fixed dates. It was given by the county 
superintendent, unless for some "good and sufiicient" rea- 
son he designated some one else to do it. The examination 
questions were prepared by the State Board of Examiners, 
consisting of the State Superintendent and two other per- 
sons appointed by him, one of whom, the secretary, re- 
ceived $2,400 per year and was a full-time man. The pa- 
pers were marked by this board. (General School Laws of 
Alabama, 1915, Sections 1719-1745.) The other way to se- 
■cure this first-grade certificate was to secure one of the 
diplomas granted by institutions whose graduates were ac- 
cepted by this State Board of Examiners (Ibid., p. 33) or 



County High Schools in the South 119 

by holding a certificate from another state standing for re- 
quirements equal to the Alabama first-grade graduates of 
Alabama Class A normal schools and normal schools in 
other states requiring an equal minimum of professional 
work. Every teacher in the Alabama county high schools 
must have either a first-grade or a life certificate. (Ibid., 
Article 20, Section 1865.) If the examinations were at all 
lived up to and the administrative machinery was provided 
for this, a wholly unqualified person could not be licensed 
to teach in these schools. For those who come by other 
than the examination route a minimum of two years of 
college training was insured with some professional train- 
ing. While these standards are not sufficiently high for an 
ideal, they are at the same time immeasurably better than 
are no minimum requirements. 

Kentucky County High-School Teachers — Legal 
Requirements 

State diplomas and state certificates were found to be 
licenses to teach in Kentucky county high schools. The 
state had several grades of certificates. The two in the 
order named followed in rank by a county certificate which 
may be subdivided into two classes — first and second. The 
law specifically stated that the State Board of Education 
should have the power to determine the qualifications of 
and to issue certificates to the teachers in the public high 
schools. (Common School Laws of Kentucky, 1918, Vol- 
ume II, No. 2, p. 91.) The state diploma was good in all 
schools controlled wholly or in part by the state. These 
diplomas could be obtained by examination in the common- 
school subjects, the science and art of teaching, psychology, 
English literature, algebra, geometry, physics, and elemen- 
tary Latin, where the applicant could make an average 
grade of "ninety per centum," and not less than seventy on 
any one subject, or by holding either a certificate in another 
state calling for not less than these requirements, or by 
holding a diploma from an institution of higher learning, 
either within or without the state, approved by the state 
board. 

Tennessee County High-School Teachers — Legal 

Requirements 

Tennessee laws distinguished sharply between certificates 
for elementary and those for secondary schools. (Compi- 
lation of Tennessee School Laws, June 30, 1917, pp. 45-50.)- 
Every one who would teach in the public high schools (ex- 
cept in cities having over 75,000 inhabitants, to which this 



120 The Administration of 

law does not apply) must have either a high-school or a 
"professional" certificate. To get a high-school certificate 
by examination, it was necessary to have passed a satisfac- 
tory examination in the history of education, principles and 
practice of teaching and school management, with especial 
reference to high-school work, English literature and lan- 
guage, and any subject which will be named on his certifi- 
cate. The State Superintendent igsued all certificates, and 
could call to his aid in administering the giving of the exam- 
inations the presidents of the different normal schools, the 
different inspectors, secondary and elementary, and could 
hire any help he needs in grading papers. The "profes- 
sional" certificate, which was issued by the State Superin- 
tendent and was not based on examinations, had the fol- 
lowing requirements and carried the following privileges 
(only the certificates which may be used in high schools are 
included in this discussion) : To any one who graduated 
from the full course of the normal school, a professional cer- 
tificate, good in all schools, except in first-class high schools, 
was given. Any graduate of the state university who had 
finished six half-year courses in professional work, not less 
than two of which bore directly on high-school work, could 
receive a first-grade high-school certificate. The State Su- 
perintendent could issue certificates without examination 
to graduates of other institutions whose requirements for 
admission and for graduation were not lower than were 
those of the state normal schools or of the state university. 
Tennessee, then, had a kind of certificate based on exami- 
nation for all county high-school teachers. In granting cer- 
tificates to graduates of institutions it legally provided that 
no one would be licensed to teach in a first-class high school 
unless the applicant was more than a normal-school grad- 
uate. 

Legally Requii^ed Qualifications of Florida County High- 
School Teachers 

It was found that Florida offered ten grades of certifica- 
tion. (Laws of Florida Relating to Education, Chapter 
7372, date 1917.) By law it signified that a principal of a 
junior county high school should hold as minimum require- 
ment a first-grade certificate, supplemented by a certificate 
covering all the branches taught in the junior high school. 
The first-grade certificate was based on satisfactory exam- 
ination in all the elementary-school branches, in theory and 
practice of teaching, in agriculture, in physical geography, 
and in teaching. A person, to be eligible to hold a princi- 
palship of either an intermediate or senior county high 



County High Schools in the South 121 

school (three-year and four-year high schools, a junior 
high school in Florida being legally the first two years of 
regular high schools) , must possess a life state certificate, 
a state certificate, or a graduate certificate. A state certifi- 
cate was granted after twenty-four months of successful 
teaching and successfully passing both an oral and written 
examination in geometry, trigonometry, physics, botany, 
zoology, Latin, rhetoric, English literature, psychology, and 
general history. Life certificates were based on successful 
teaching, in addition to the qualifications required for state 
certificates. County high-school teachers in senior high 
schools must possess a state certificate as minimum train- 
ing. This could be obtained either by examination or by 
the presentation of a diploma from a standard university, 
college, or normal school. The State Board of Examiners 
determined what grade of certification the degree or di- 
ploma should entitle the holder to. The privilege of substi- 
tuting training for examination was extended to teachers 
from all states. There was a State Board of Examiners, 
consisting of three members, who prepared all examination 
questions, conducted all examinations, oral and written, and 
graded all papers. These three examiners were full-time 
men, receiving each $2,000 and traveling expenses yearly. 
(Ibid., Sections 19-21.) 

Legally, Florida had provided for these things respecting 
the qualifications of her teachers. If the examinations were 
at all rigorously administered, the array of subject-matter 
required in examinations for state certificates would ex- 
clude all but those possessing a high grade of scholarship. 
Accepting diplomas and degrees earned within the state in 
place of these examinations in long lists of subjects placed 
the emphasis very definitely on training rather than exam- 
ination. Extending the same privileges to teachers in other 
states should insure a sufficient number of those who have 
been trained outside the state to prevent "professional in- 
breeding." 

Legally Required Qualifications of Louisiana Parish High- 
School Teachers 

Louisiana laws for the certification of teachers provided 
that graduates of all schools in all states meeting the stand- 
ards prescribed for the different grades of certification 
could be licensed to teach without examination. All oth- 
ers must be examined. (Public School Laws of Louisiana, 
p. 125, Section 48(b).) Thus the law very definitely put" 
the emphasis for certification on graduation from a stand- 
ard training school. The standard school, in the case of 



122 The Administration of 

normal schools, must provide at least two years of college 
work above Louisiana high schools. Colleges must be four 
years in advance of the same prerequisites. High-school 
teachers in the parish high school were required to have 
special high-school certificates. The subjects required in 
the examination for this special school certificate were not 
set forth by law, but the State Board of Education was 
given complete authority to prescribe whatever subjects it 
saw fit to name. This board had entire charge of the exam- 
inations, but was required to appoint an examining com- 
mittee of as many members as might be needed to carry 
out the administration of the examinations and to fix the 
compensation this committee was to receive. 

Legally Required Qualifications of Georgia High-School 

Teachers 

The State Board of Education of Georgia, in compliance 
with the certification laws of 1911, worked out a plan for 
certification, including both a method based on examination 
and one based on training. (Georgia School Laws, 1917, 
p. 34.) It provided high-school certification by examina- 
tion, with five groups of subject-matter named — mathe- 
matics, English, science, languages, and history — from 
which the applicant must choose three subjects. In addi- 
tion to these three subjects, the examination included school 
management, with the questions for 1918 based on Hollis- 
ter's "High School Administration," and methods of teach- 
ing, which were for the same year based on Strayer and 
Noisworthy's "How to Teach." The tenure of certification 
based on these examinations ranged from one to three 
years, determined by the per cent mark obtained on the 
examination. To receive a professional certificate based on 
a degree, the plan provided that the graduate who has had 
nine year hours' work in education should receive a pro- 
fessional certificate, good in any school under the direction 
of the State Board of Education ; a graduate of a standard 
college not having had the courses in education could, by 
passing an examination in the professional subjects pre- 
scribed for secondary certificates, receive a temporary cer- 
tificate, which could be made the equal of the other certifi- 
cate by doing an equivalent amount of professional work in 
an approved summer school. The same privileges were 
extended to graduates of institutions in other states, with 
the exception that they are required to take examinations 
in the history and geography of Georgia. 



County High Schools in the South 123 

Certificates of Legal Requirements of Georgia Teachers 

The plan of certification based on examination prescribed 
only secondary subject-matter in the five groups. A thor- 
ough knowledge of the subjects taught in secondary schools, 
plus a knowledge of Hollister's "High School Administra- 
tion" and Strayer and Noisworthy's "How to Teach," and 
the "Manual of Methods," was all that they required. 
There seemed no reason why a strong student could not 
master these three in a summer term at any of the teach- 
ers' colleges. How serious this may be is not the province 
of this study to determine. 

Legally Required Qualifications of County High-School 

Teachers in South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, 

and Maryland 

For reasons which have been discussed in detail in pre- 
vious chapters, the required qualifications for county high- 
school teachers in the remaining group of states having 
county administration are discussed in less detail than the 
others. South Carolina high-school laws provided that 
every high-school teacher in a state-aided high school must 
have a first-grade certificate, properly registered with the 
county superintendent of education. (General School Laws 
of South Carolina, p. 66, date 1916.) College diplomas 
alone were not considered certificates, nor was certification 
based on examination only. After July 1, 1917, the fitness 
of the teacher was to be determined by the courses pursued 
by that teacher in preparation for present work, and ad- 
ministratively this was to be worked out through a writ- 
ten recommendation to the state board from its representa- 
tive. A certificate to teach in a Virginia high school could 
be obtained in any one of the four general ways — on cer- 
tification or diploma, on certification of the completion of 
at least sixty hours of standard college work, on state ex- 
amination, and through summer-school courses. In the 
long list of certificates specified by the Virginia law the 
limitations of each were specified for the convenience of 
administering boards. (Virginia School Laws, 1915, p. 
175.) Any one in Texas who held a state first-grade cer- 
tificate or a state permanent certificate could teach in the 
high schools of the state. The state first-grade certificate 
could be obtained by examination, by holding a degree from 
a state normal school, college, or university. (Public 
School Laws, Texas, 1915, p. 43.) Maryland laws required 
of every high-school teacher in the state-aided county high 
schools a high-school teacher's certificate. It was granted 



124 The Administration of 

to any applicant who was a graduate of a standard college 
or had the equivalent scholarship, provided that at least two 
continuous years were spent in the study of some high- 
school subject, and provided, further, that at least two 
hundred recitation hours were spent in the study of educa- 
tion. A high-school principal's certificate required, in ad- 
dition to this, a full year's graduate work at a standard 
university, one-third of which was devoted to the study of 
secondary education. All the details of certification were 
in the hands of the State Superintendent and his assistants. , 

Summary of the Required Qualifications of Teachers 
IN County High Schools 

In every one of the states studied it was possible to ob- 
tain certification in either of two ways — the examination 
route or by holding a degree from a standard institution. 
Some states, by the list of subjects in which they required 
examination, would seem to put the emphasis on securing 
the necessary certification through regular training. Only 
one, however (Maryland), directly placed all emphasis on 
the training and made examination only a final possibility. - 
Not one of these states required the degree or made any 
quantitative requirement in training a prerequisite to ex- 
amination. Other professions, notably medicine, impose 
this double test of fitness. In several of the states the pro- 
spective teacher is "legallj^" tested in both the theory and 
practice of teaching. Since no plans were suggested, nor 
was any one empowered to work out a plan for testing 
practice, the question naturally arose: Was the applicant 
tested in the practice of teaching, or was he tested in the 
theories of the practice of teaching? Another question 
naturally arose: Why did some of these states emphasize 
the making of a passing mark in local history one pre- 
requisite for certification? The working out of this would 
seem likely to discourage the coming into the state of really 
desirable teaching talent. Outside the particular state the 
local history is usually considered of relatively insufficient 
importance to warrant the emphasis on very many details. 
Is there not some danger of fostering either sectionalism 
or provincialism in too much emphasis on state history? 



Distribution of Teachers in County High Schools — 
First Group 

In discussing the distribution of county high-school teach- 
ers, the same grouping will be used which has been used 



County High Schools in the South 125 

throughout the study. The farm-hfe high schools of North 
Carohna, the agricultural schools of Mississippi, and the 
county high schools of Alabama will constitute the first 
group. A small group of county high schools which have 
been developed under county control in Kentucky have in 
other chapters been included in this group. They are not 
so included in this discussion, as they were purposely not 
separated from the other high schools in this part of the 
study, the schools for this discussion being chosen on the 
basis of being four-year high schools. 

The Kentucky schools were mentioned in the second group 
in discussing the teaching forces. However, much less at- 
tention was paid to grouping than in the other discussions. 
In the distribution all the schools belonging to what has 
been called the "first two groups" have been used. They 
may be considered, so far as this discussion is concerned, 
as constituting group one. 

North Carolina Farm-Life, Mississippi Agricultural, 

and Alabama County High Schools — 

Distribution of Teachers 

In the farm-life schools of North Carolina the number 
of teachers ranged from two teachers in one case to eight 
at the other extreme. (Tenth Annual Report, Inspector of 
North Carolina High Schools, Table I.) The typical school 
had five teachers, whether the type be determined by the 
most schools having a certain number, the mode, or by the 
number which the school at the middle point, the median, 
has, which number also is five. 

In the agricultural high schools of Mississippi the small- 
est number of teachers in any school was three and the 
largest number was thirteen. (Biennial Report, State Su- 
perintendent, Mississippi, Table III.) The median school 
had six teachers, and there were more schools with this 
number than with any other, there being one-fourth of the 
schools with that number. One-half of the. schools in this 
group had five, six, or seven teachers. 

In Alabama nearly half of the county high schools had 
four teachers. (Bulletin No. 58, State Department of Ed- 
ucation, Alabama.) 

The number throughout the distribution was fairly uni- 
form, the smallest number of teachers being three and the 
largest number six. More than five-sixths of these schools 
had either three or four teachers. 



126 The Administration of 

Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia — 
Distribution of Teachers in County High Schools 

When all of the four-year county high schools in Ken- 
tucky, both those which were real county high schools and 
those which had contracts with county boards, were con- 
sidered, the range in the variation of the number of teach- 
ers was from two to sixty-five. Three was the number most 
often found, more than one-third of the schools having it. 
This was also the median school. Two was the second fa- 
vorite, more than one-fourth of the schools having only two 
teachers. There were relatively few of these schools, less 
than one-tenth, which had more than six teachers. (Bien- 
nial Report of the Supervisor of High Schools of Kentucky, 
1917, p. 166.) In Florida the typical county high school 
had five teachers. (Biennial Report, Superintendent of 
Schools, Florida, p. 239.) Only schools grouped by the in- 
spector as belonging to the first class were included in this 
number. The smallest number of teachers which any one 
school has was three, and the largest number was fifteen. 
The schools group around three, four, and five teachers. 
More than three-fifths of these schools had one of these 
numbers in the distribution. In the Tennessee and the 
Kentucky high schools the range in the number of teachers 
was wide. There were two four-year high schools which 
had only one teacher, and there was another school with 
forty-eight teachers. The median school had seven teach- 
ers, but the number of schools which had four teachers was 
larger than the number of schools with any other number 
of teachers. One-fourth of the schools had more than 
twelve teachers. In Louisiana four teachers was both 
median and mode. One-half of the group of 150 schools 
have that number of teachers. At least five-sixths of the 
schools had three, four, or five teachers. In Georgia the 
median school was a six-teacher school, though four was 
the favorite number, there being twice as many schools with 
four teachers as with six. Three, four, and five consti- 
tuted the favorite numbers, fully one-third of the schools 
having one of these numbers. These facts are summarized 
in the following table : 



County High Schools in the South 127 

TABLE XL 

Showing Distribution of Teachers in County High Schools in 
Different States 

Maximum Minimum Median Modal 

Group of Schools No. No. No. No. 

North Carolina farm-life high schools 8 2 5 5 

Louisiana parish high schools 25 2 4 4 

Mississippi district agricultural high schools 13 3 6 6 

Tennessee county high schools 48 1 7 4 

Alabama county high schools 6 3 4 3 

Kentucky county high schools 65 2 3 3 

Florida county high schools 15 3 5 S 

Georgia county high schools 124 16 4 

The Training of the Teachers in Louisiana, Kentucky, 
Georgia, and Florida County High Schools 

Illustrative of the training of these teachers in these 
county high schools, a number of data regarding the dis- 
tribution of training in several of the states is quoted. It 
was found that in the parish (Annual Report, Louisiana 
High Schools, p. 80) high schools of Louisiana, in the same 
group which was used for the distribution of teachers, the 
number of university and college graduates ranged from one 
to sixteen. One-fifth of these schools had only one univer- 
sity graduate. The typical school (defined as the median 
of those schools having university graduates) had two col- 
lege-trained teachers. Two-thirds of these schools had not 
more than two graduates of universities or colleges on their 
staff. In the distribution of normal-school graduates in 
these schools, nearly half the schools which had them had 
only one. The median number was two. Relatively there 
were few schools having normal graduates which had more 
than two. Distributed through the group there were some 
121 teachers without degrees or diplomas. One teacher in 
this classification was the number most often found pos- 
sessed by those schools which had them. Two, however, 
was the median number possessed. Few schools had more 
than three teachers without degrees. 

In Georgia the qualifications of the high-school teachers 
in the county high schools (Report of High School Inspector 
of Georgia, 1917), based on the holding of a high-school 
license or professional certificate, showed that there were 
two schools in the group of four-year high schools consid- 
ered where there were no teachers holding high-school cer- 
tificates. The median school, however, had six teachers 
with such license. The favorite number expressed by the 
mode was four. There were thirty-two schools in the 
group where there were no teachers without high-school 
certificates. There was one school in the group, however, 
with fourteen teachers without this license. The median 



128 The Administration of 

of the group having teachers without this license had none, 
and the mode strongly had none. One-fourth of them, how- 
ever, had one or more teachers without it. 

In Kentucky, in the four-year county high schools, one- 
third of the schools which had college graduates had only 
one. Almost a second third had only two, which was the 
median number. The favorite determined by the mode, 
however, was one. Of those having normal-school gradu- 
ates, the favorite number was decidedly one by both median 
and mode. A very small fraction of the group had more 
than two. Of those schools with instructors who were 
neither normal-school nor university graduates, the favorite 
was very strongly one. Relatively very few had more than 
two such teachers, though one school was found with eleven. 
(Monograph Report, Supervisor of Kentucky High Schools, 
page 166.) 

In the county high schools of Florida, in the first classifi- 
cation, as designated by the inspector, there were two 
schools which had only one college graduate. The median 
number of college graduates possessed, however, was four, 
and the favorite number was two. There were seventeen 
of these schools which had teachers who were not graduates 
of a college. There was one school which had five teachers 
who had not finished college, but the median number of non- 
graduates in the schools which had them was two per school. 
Facts concerning the training of teachers in these schools 
appear in the following table : 

TABLE XLI 

Showing Variation in Number of Degrees Held by Teachers in 
Certain County High Schools 

Maximum No. Minim,uin No. Median Mode 

with Degree with Degree with Degree with Degree 

from from from from 



Col. Col. Col. Col. 

or Nor- or Nor- or Nor- or Nor- 

Univ. mat None Univ. mal None Univ. mal None Univ. mat. N'e 

La. Parish H. S. 16 7 4 111 222 111 

Ky. County H. S. 44 18 11 111 211 111 

Fla. County H. S. 13 S 10 1 4 2 2 1 

Ga. County H. S. 38 14 6 4 
(Data in Georgia county high schools are representative of high-school certification, 
as explained earlier in the chapter, and not of degrees held.) 

Illustrative of Some Salaries in Florida and Alabama 
County High Schools 

In Florida the salaries of the principals of the county high 
schools ranged from $3,000 to $1,000. The median salary 
in this group of schools was $1,500, but there were more 
$1,200 salaries than any other. The average salaries of the 
teachers, distributed by schools, ranged from $490 per year 



County High Schools in the South 129 

to $1,100. The median salary was $700, and there were 
more teachers receiving that salary than any other salary. 
In Alabama in the county high schools the maximum salary 
received by any principal was $2,000 ; the minmumi was 
$1,200. The median salary of principals was $1,500, v^^hich 
was strongly the favorite number, more than half the princi- 
pals receiving that amount. Teachers get salaries ranging 
from $340 to $995. The median teacher's salary v/as $720. 
This was also the mode. 

Mississippi Agricultural County High Schools — Salaries 

In the Mississippi agricultural county high schools the 
average salaries of teachers, distributed by schools, ranged 
from $357 per year to $1,025. The median salary was $675, 
which was also the mode. 

Tabulated facts concerning salaries appear so : 

TABLE XLII 
Showing Typical Salaries and Variations in Same 

Maximum Salaries Minimwn Median Mode 

Schools Prin. Teach. Prin. Teach. Prin. Teach. Prin. Teach. 

Florida $3,000 $1,100 $1,000 $490 $1,500 $700 $1,200 $700 

Alabama 2,000 995 1,200 340 1,500 720 1,500 720 

Mississippi 1,025 357 675 675 

Summary and Conclusions 

In general, the legally required minimum qualifications 
which teachers must have in the county high schools stud- 
ied there was a noticeable lack of uniformity. This was, 
perhaps, the most pronounced feature concerning these re- 
quirements. A second thing which was very noticeable was 
the tendency to emphasize matters of local importance, as 
state history, as part of the required qualifications of high- 
school teachers. A third thing of importance was the prac- 
tice of what may seem to be the more difficult way of secur- 
ing a measure of the teacher's ability. It is doubtful what 
the unstandardized questions which were used in state ex- 
aminations for teachers do measure. Certainly to require 
a bachelor's degree from a standard college or university, 
with required special majors and minors for teaching of 
different courses, seems a much more nearly certain way of 
getting the product sought. 

The distribution of the number of teachers by schools 
showed a wide variation. This variation was found within 
any one system and between any two systems. It would 
help to remedy the situation to require a certain minimum 
number of teachers. Variation above that minimum need 
not be other than a desirable feature. 



130 The Administration of 

The conclusion suggested by illustrations chosen from the 
situation regarding teachers' salaries in these county high 
schools is: The situation is very far from the administra- 
tive principle which the most progressive of administra- 
tors are beginning to advocate and which has already been 
tried out in educational systems other than our own — that 
of equal quantitative training for all teachers, and equal, if 
not identical, remuneration for service rendered. 

Why, for instance, should the average principal's salary 
in a Florida county high school be three times that of the 
average high-school teacher's? Quantitative training, as 
legally required minimum qualifications, is not materially 
different. Or how can Mississippi have in her agricultural 
high schools an average minimum salary of $357 per year 
and hope to secure an adequately prepared teaching force? 



, CHAPTER NINE / 

Programs of Study 
Definition of "Programs of Study" 

"Programs of study," as used in this chapter, is defined 
to mean the collection of all the curricula; and since "cur- 
ricula" is defined to mean the collection of courses in the 
different subjects leading to a diploma, the term "program 
of studies," then, is the all-inclusive term for the several 
courses. "A course" is accepted as meaning all which is 
taught in a single subject — ^to illustrate, the course in Eng- 
lish, the history course, etc. In brief, the term "program of 
study" is used to correspond to what was formerly and what 
is still very commonly meant by "course of study." When 
the term "courses of study" is used as in this paragraph, it 
is used in its plural sense, meaning the diflferent individual 
courses which go to make up the program of studies. This 
is in no sense an attempt to introduce something new in 
terminology, but rather to conform to the recommendation 
made a few years ago by the N. E. A. Committee, which rec- 
ommendation has come to be pretty generally accepted by 
writers on secondary education. 

Importance of Courses of Study 

The importance of the facts concerning the distribution 
of these courses is set forth by Cubberley in his discussions 
of the different problems of the public-school administra- 
tion. (Cubberley. Public School Administration, p. 277.) 
"One of the quickest means for determining the ideals and 
purposes which actuate a school system," says he, "is to 
examine the courses of study prescribed for the school." 
"From such an examination the character of the ideals of 
the administration as to the purposes of education can 
quickly be told." It is with this view of the importance of 
these courses in mind that the study represented in this 
chapter is made; for it is believed that while, for reasons 
already expanded in previous chapters, the county as a 
unit of secondary education is peculiarly adapted to the 
South, its ultimate usefulness in that or any other section 
must depend pretty largely on the selection of the courses 
of study which is made. 

Methods of Studying These Courses of Study 

In studying their programs of study, the county high 
school will be divided into two groups — one, those high 



132 



The Administration of 



schools where uniform programs are required for all the 
county high schools of the state; two, those schools where 
the programs are not specifically prescribed by this central 
authority. Subdivisions of this first group may be sug- 
gested by the study, which will be made by studying in de- 
tail several of those programs and a discussion of several 
of the most salient facts concerning them. 

Programs of Study for Alabama County High Schools 

The program of studies which the Alabama county high 
schools use is uniform and is prescribed by the State High 
School Commission. It provides four curricula, as set forth 

below : 

TABLE XLIII 

Showing Program of Studies for Alabama County High Schools 



Science 




Latin 


Modern Language 


Vocational 


Curriculum 


Curriculum 


Curriculum 


Curriculum 






First Year 




English 




English 


English 


English 


Mathematics 




Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Science 




Latin 


Latin 


Science 


Social Science 




Social Science 


Social Science 


Vocational Agriculture 


Drawing 




Drawing 


Drawing 




Manual Train! 


I'g 


Manual Training 

Secon 


Manual Training 
id Year 




English 




English 


English 


English 


Mathematics 




Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Science 




Latin 


Latin 


History 


History 




History 


History 


Vocational Agriculture 


Woodworking 


(boys; 


) Woodworking 


Woodworking 




Domestic Sciei 


ice 


Domestic Science 


Domestic Science 




(girls) 




Bookkeeping 


Bookkeeping 




Bookkeeping 




Home and School 


Home and School 




Home and School 


Gardening 


Gardening 




Gardening 














Third Year 




English 




English 


English 


English 


Mathematics 




Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Science 




Latin 


French, Spanish 


Science 


History 




History 


History 


Vocational Agriculture 


Home and School 


Home and School 


Home and School 




Gardening 




Gardening 


Gardening 








Fourth Year 




English 




English 


English 


History 


Mathematics 




Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Mathematics 


Science 




Latin 


French, Spanish 


Science 


History 




History 


History 


Vocational Agriculture 


Economics 




Latin 


Latin 




Nursing and " 


First 








Aid 










Domestic Science 








(Bulletin, 


Department of Education, 


Rules and Regulations, Courses of Study, 


Adopted Textbooks, 


for County High Schools, date 1918, p. 7) 





In the general regulations of the High School Commission 
it was provided that a high school with less than four teach- 
ers could not offer all these parallel curricula. For them 
the modern-language curriculum was not offered, Latin be- 



County High Schools in the South 133 

ing the only foreign language given. Since in the first year 
of the four curricula English and mathematics were iden- 
tical and home and school gardening was required of every 
one, the main differences between these curricula were not 
so great. Really they seemed these. The Latin and the 
modern English curricula, which were identical, differ from 
the science curricula in that Latin had replaced science. 
The science differed from the vocational in that it had 
courses in social science and domestic science where the 
other had vocational agriculture. In the second year the 
language curricula were again identical, and the science 
course differed from the vocational by having woodwork- 
ing, domestic science, and bookkeeping, while the latter had 
fifteen "clock hours" of vocational agriculture. In the 
third year the modern language curriculum had Spanish or 
French in place of Latin, and the science curriculum had 
modern European history in place of vocational agriculture. 
In the last year the modern-language curriculum had both 
the modern language and Latin, and the science had Amer- 
ican history and the elements of rural economics, with 
nursing and domestic science in place of more . vocational 
agriculture. In general, it appeared very much as if the 
four curricula had evolved from two, where the funda- 
mental distinction had been Latin versus science. The 
modern-language curriculum might well be a modification 
of the Latin, made by adding two units of modern language 
and dropping one of Latin. It will readily be seen that 
both of these curricula meet most college-entrance require- 
ments. The fact that some colleges and universities re- 
quire three units of Latin, if any is accredited, probably 
accounts for the unit which remains in the fourth-year 
work. The vocational curriculum might easily be consid- 
ered a modification of the science curriculum to meet the 
demands of the "Smith-Hughes Act." It could easily have 
been formed by substituting vocational agriculture for what 
any but a specialist in vocational education would, perhaps, 
be prone to call the "prevocational" courses of the science 
curriculum. 

Programs of Mississippi Agricultural High Schools 

The program of studies for the Mississippi agricultural 
high schools offered but one curriculum. Its provisions 
were uniform for all the high schools of this group. They 
were : 



134 The Administration of 

TABLE XLIV 

Showing Program of Studies, Mississippi Agricultural High 

Schools 

First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 

Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture 

Home Science Home Science Home Science Home Science 

English English English English 

Arithmetic Algebra Plane Geometry History 

General Agriculture* History History Agriculture* 

English* Agriculture* English* History* 

Arithmetic* Aip'tl)ra* 

History* 
(Bulletin No. 10, 1917, Part II, County Agricultural High Schools, Course of Study) 

The thing most noticeable about this curriculum was the 
entire absence of any foreign-language study and the ar- 
rangements of the electives, which seem to be extended work 
in the same subjects rather than additional subjects. The 
course was short, not only in foreign language, but in a 
study of the basic sciences, there appearing four years of 
agriculture without any supporting sciences. There was 
an absence also of any kind of work in the industrial arts. 
However, provisions made for the teaching of vocational 
agriculture (Educational Bulletin No. 11, Vocational Series 
No. 1, date 1918, p. 25) provided classes in vocational agri- 
culture with instruction including class and laboratory 
work equivalent to five ninety-minute periods per week for 
not less than thirty-two weeks. It also provided supervised 
farm practice for an equivalent period and extension serv- 
ice in at least three lines of endeavor. These additions to 
the curriculum were probably made to fit the schools to the 
"Smith-Hughes" Act. 

Program of Studies in North Carolina Farm-Life High 

Schools 

In 1918 nine of the twenty-one farm-life high schools of 
North Carolina had become vocational schools under the 
State Board of Vocational Education for North Carolina, 
date 1918. As this seems to be the indicated future for 
these farm-life schools, the program of studies which they 
use is the one listed here. It is recognized that this pro- 
gram is not in use as yet in all these schools ; but it is 
thought it will very soon be, and for that reason it is used. 
It provided one curriculum. 



County High Schools in the South 



135 



TABLE XLV 

Showing Program of Studies for North Carolina Farm-Life 
High Schools 



First Year 
English 
Mathematics 
Science 
Agriculture 



Second Year 
English 
History 
Mathematics 
Agriculture 



Third Year 
English 
History 
Science 
Agriculture 



Practical Farm Work Practical Farm Work Practical Farm Work 



Fourth Year 
English 
Economics 
Civics 

Hygiene and Sanita- 
tion 
Agriculture 
Practical Farm Work 



The above curriculum showed an entire absence of for- 
eign-language work, both ancient and modern. Its grad- 
uates were prepared for college entrance only to colleges 
which required neither, and would be handicapped in col- 
lege work in all colleges which required either language 
for the completion of a degree. Another feature of this 
program was that it provided that fifty per cent of the pu- 
pil's time should be devoted to vocational and fifty per cent 
be devoted to nonvocational work. The time of instruction 
was not to be less than 450 minutes in recitation and related 
subject work and 450 minutes in practical. (Ibid., p. 14.) 

Kentucky County High-School Program of Studies 

For the Kentucky county high schools the state depart- 
ments offered a number of curricula. These were desig- 
nated as "standard," scientific, English, and "classical." 
(Bulletin No. 6, Volume IX, Kentucky Department of Ed- 
ucation, "Manual and Courses of Study for Public High 
Schools," p. 13, date 1916.) As the last three named cur- 
ricula could be obtained from modifications of the "stand- 
ard," the "standard" is given and modifications noted. 



TABLE XLVI 
Showing Curricula in Kentucky County High Schools 



First Year 
English* 
AJgebra* 

Physical Geography 
Physiology 
Latin 
German 
French 

Ancient History 
Drawing 
General Science 
Elementary Agricul- 
ttire 



Standard 
Second Year 
English* 

Algebra* and Arith- 
metic 
Biology 
Latin 
German 
French 

M. and M. History 
Industrial Geography 
Domestic Science 
Mechanical Drawing 
Manual Training 
Spelling 
Penmanship 



Curriculum 

Third Year 
English* 

Plane Geometry* 
Physics 

English History 
Latin 
German 
French 
Bookkeeping 
Agriculture 
Commercial Geogra- 
phy 
Manual Training 



Fourth Year 
English* 
Solid Geometry 
Trigonometry 
Chemistry 
American History 
Civics 
Latin 
German 
French 

Political Economy 
I'edagogy 
Psychology 
Manual Training 
Domestic Science 



To determine the science curriculum, it was necessary to 
select for the first year from the standard curriculum the 



136 The Administration of 

subjects of English, algebra, physical geography, ancient 
history or Latin; for the second year, English, algebra, 
biology, Latin and ancient history, and household economics • 
or manual training; for the third year, English, plane ge- 
ometry, physics, English history, manual arts or home eco- 
nomics ; and for the fourth year, English, solid geometry, 
chemistry, agriculture, American history, civics, and rural 
life studies. 

To determine the English curriculum in the first year, it 
was necessary to select as in the science, except that there 
was an election between ancient history and physical geog- 
raphy instead of between physical geography and first-year 
science, and an election between Latin and German instead 
of between Latin and ancient history. The English cur- 
riculum in the first year added courses in home economics 
and manual training. In the second year, where in the 
science curriculum the election was between a year of gen- 
eral biology and either botany or zoology, in the English it 
was between physiology and botany and M. and M. history. 
In science, where the election was between Latin and his- 
tory, in the English it was between Latin and German this 
same year. The .English did not provide household econom- 
ics and manual training, but drawing instead, in the second 
year. In the third year the only diff'erence in these curric- 
ula was the inclusion of bookkeeping in the English curric- 
ulum. In the fourth year the differences were that solid 
geometry was not included in the English course, but was 
in the science ; while political economy appeared in the Eng- 
lish and not in the science. Pedagogy was also in this year 
of the English curriculum. If not more than three con- 
stants were required and if sixteen units of work consti- 
tuted the basis of work for graduation, it seems that it 
would be easily possible for two students to enter these two 
curricula and come out at completion with exactly the same 
subjects. In fact, if a desire to keep down the number of 
classes or to keep well within subjects accredited by most 
colleges should act as factors, this would seem to be the nat- 
ural result, and it would be hard to determine what the dif- 
ferences between these curricula were. In the classical the 
courses were : 



County High Schools in the South 137 

TABLE XLVII 

Showing Courses in Different Kentucky County High Schools' 

Curricula 

First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 

English English English English 

Latin Latin L. or M. L.* L. or M. L.* 

Algebra Algebra Geometry Geometry 

Ancient History or M. and M. History English History or American History and 

Physical Geography Physics Government or Ped- 
agogy or Psychology 



*Modern Language 

These last three curricula — the English, the science, and 
the classical — seem to have been derived from what was 
termed the "standard" curriculum. They could be used in 
any first-class county high school. Any one curriculum or 
all could be used. Other special curricula could be formed 
from the "standard" as these were formed, provided the 
starred subjects were included. 

Florida County High Schools — Program of Studies 

In Florida the State Department of Education provided 
at least four different programs of studies. One is for the 
two-year high school, with at least one teacher. It per- 
mitted of an election between a classical and a Latin cur- 
riculum. The difference between the curricula was that 
one has two years of Latin, while the other has two years 
of science. The school elected between the two, but could 
attempt only one curriculum. For the three-year high 
school, with at least two teachers, the same plan, with the 
same restrictions, was offered. The same fundamental dif- 
ferences existed between the courses. For the small-town 
high school, with at least two teachers, besides the princi- 
pal, there was a program of studies which was a combina- 
tion — classical-science curriculum — but which existed as 
one curriculum. For the four-year high school, with at 
least four teachers, there was a program with three re- 
quired subjects and one elective subject in the first year, two 
required and two elective in the second, and two elective 
and two required in the third, with the same selection in the 
fourth year. This program follows. Starred subjects are 
required. 



138 



The Administration of 



First Year 
English* 
Algebra* 
Ancient History* 
Latin 

Physical Geography 
General Science 
Agriculture 
Home Economics 
Manual Training 
Commercial Arith- 
metic 
Physiology 
Shorthand 
Music 
Drawing 



TABLE XLVIII 
Showing Program of Studies for Florida County High Schools 

Second Year Third Year Fourth Year 

English* English* English* 

Alpebra or Geom- Algebra* (one-half American History and 

etry* year) Government* 

Latin or Latin 

Modern History Geometry (one year) French 

Piotany or Zoology Latin Spanish 

Agriculture French Social Science 

Home Economics Spanish Psychology 

Manual Training Solid Geometry Manual Training 

Commercial Aritb- Physics Agriculture 

metic Chemistry Physics 

Shorthand Agriculture Chemistry 

Bookkeeping Bookkeeping Plane Trigonometry 

Music Home Economics Shorthand 

Drawing Manual Training Solid Geometry 

Shorthand Business Arithmetic 

Commercial Arith- Bookkeeping 

metic Commercial English 

Music Typewriting 

Drawing Mvisic 

Drawing 

The possibilities of such a program he in its administration. 
If a number of restrictions are thrown arounci the elections, 
it may be almost as narrowly restricted in its range as the 
typical classical program. If, on the other hand, the elec- 
tions are left free, the equivalent of a number of curricula 
may arise within this single curriculum. 

Tennessee County High Schools — Progranfis of Study 

In Tennessee there existed the program of studies which 
was planned for the county high schools before the passage 
of the "Smith-Hughes" Act and the program which had 
more recently been evolved to permit them to become voca- 
tional schools and to participate in the "Smith-Hughes" 
funds. The original program of studies is given first. It 
is of the Florida type — one curriculum with a number of 
prescribed subjects and a wider range of electives. Starred 
subjects are required. (Course of Study for the County 
High Schools of Tennessee, date 1918, p. 9.) 

TABLE XLIX 

Showing Original Program of Studies for Tennessee County 
High Schools 



First Year 
English* 
Arithmetic and 

Algebra* 
Biology* 
Agriculture 
Home Economics 
Manual Training 
Latin 



Second Year 
English* 
Algebra* 
Agriculture 
Manual Training 
Home Economics 
Physiography 
Latin 
Ancient History 



Third Year 
English* 

Plane Geometry* 
Latin 
French 
Spanish 
Stenography 
Bookkeeping 
M. and M. History 
Physics 



Fourth Year 
English* 

American History* 
Latin 
French 
Spanish 
Stenography 
Bookkeeping 
Solid Geometrj 



The modifications as they exist that the schools may be- 
come vocational ones are next given. (Ibid., p. 11.) 



County High Schools in the South 



139 



TABLE L 
Showing Modified Program for Tennessee County High Schools 

First Year 
English 
Arithmetic and 

Algebra 
Biology 
Agriculture 
Field Practice 



Second Year 
English 
Algebra 

Live Stock Produc- 
tion 
Physiography 
Farm Practice 



Third Year 
English 

Farm Arithmetic 
Elementary Econom- 
ics 
Horticulture 
Project Work 



Fourth Year 
English 
American History and 

Civics 
Chemistry 
Farm Management 
Farm Machinery 
Project Work 



It is seen that the modification of the program caused the 
school to prepare for agriculture as a vocation, and does not 
fit for college entrance. It offers a very wide departure 
from the college course. 

Maryland County High Schools — Programs of Study 

In Maryland for five years the county high schools have 
followed a "state course of study" prepared by the State 
Department of Education. During that period the depart- 
ment has been studying the "strengths and weaknesses" of 
the present program. These facts and the changed social 
conditions due to the war are to be made the basis for a 
revision of the program which is soon to be published. 
(Maryland Teachers' Year Book, 1918-1919, p. 18.) The 
program which has been used during the past five years is 
given here. It will be noted that it conforms to the same 
plan as have the last two discussed. It provided one cur- 
riculum, with a limited number of required subjects and 
an additional number of elective subjects. Starred sub- 
jects are required ones. 

TABLE LI 
Showing Program of Studies for Maryland County High Schools 



First Year 


Second Year 


Third Year 


Fourth Year 


English* 


English* 


English* 


English IV* 


Mathematics* 


Mathematics* 


Mathematics 


History IV* 


Science* 


Manual Arts* 


Science 


Mathematics 


Manual Arts* 


Science 


Latin 


Science 


History 


Latin 


German 


Latin 


Latin 


German 


French 


German 


German 


French 


Bookkeeping 


French 


French 


Commerce 


Commercial Corre- 


Commercial Law 


Agriculture 


Agriculture 


spondence 


Shorthand 


Home Economics 


Home Economics 


Shorthand 


Typewriting 






Typewriting 


Manual Arts 






Manual Arts 


Agriculture 






Agriculture 


Home Economics 






Home Economics 





Seventeen units of work were required for graduation, 
except where home economics or manual training had not 
been elected as one of the vocational subjects required by 
law, in which case sixteen units were accepted. There 
were, as noted, nine units of required work. Restrictions 
were thrown around elections which led to diplomas. If 



140 



The Administration of 



one elected commercial work in the third and fourth years, 
it must be elected as a whole. In schools meeting Smith- 
Hughes requirements not more than one-half a pupil's time 
could be devoted to academic work. The most noticeable 
restriction, however, was that the elections must he made 
by classes, and not by individual pupils. (Ibid., p. 29.) 

South Carolina County High Schools — Programs of Study. 

There were these especially interesting features concern- 
ing the program of studies which was prepared for all the 
four-year high schools of South Carolina. These programs 
were always the same, whether they are for rural or city 
high schools, and the programs which the State Depart- 
ment had issued for the use of those schools (Programs of 
Study, Curriculum, and Courses of Study for Four- Year 
High Schools, issued by the State Department of Education, 
1918) were prepared by a committee from the Department 
of Superintendence of the State Teachers' Association. It 
appeared in the type of the last three discussed. It is given 
in the following. Starred subjects are required. 







TABLE LII 




Showing 


Program of 


Studies for South Carolina County 






High Schools 




First Year 


Second 


Year 


Third Year 


Fourth Year 


English*' 


English* 




English* 


English* 


Algebra* 


Algebra* 




Latin 


American History and 


Latin 


Latin 




Plane Geometry* 


Civics* 


General Sciencj 


Biology 




Chemistry 


Latin 


French 


Ancient Hi; 


story 


M. and M. History 


Solid Geometry 


Agriculture 


French 




Agriculture 


Advanced Algebra 




Commercial 


Arith- 


German 


Physics 




metic 




Spanish 


Agriculture 




Agriculture 




Bookkeeping 
Stenography 
Typewriting 


German 

Spanish 

Bookkeeping 

Stenography 

Typewriting 

Commercial Geography 

Commercial Law 



The restrictions thrown around the election of these sub- 
jects caused them to group. These were classical- science, 
modern language, and commercial. Their differences were 
suggested by their names. 

Louisiana, Virginia, and Texas County High Schools — 
Programs of Study 

In the case of these three last-named states the programs 
of study were not issued by the State Department of Edu- 
cation ; rather, they are left to be evolved by the individual 
schools, and were checked through the state system of in- 
spection on the basis of university entrance requirements 



County High Schools in the South 141 

and the regulations for the apportionment of the state aid. 
This had been true of the evolution of programs of study- 
in the states where the district unit had prevailed. Some- 
times where authority had been more definitely centralized 
later in a strong State Department, a program of studies 
uniform for all the county high schools, or in some cases for 
all the high schools in the state, had been planned. To this 
program the high schools were required to conform. In 
other cases it was still left to bases first described for check- 
ing. 

Summary and Conclusions 

Perhaps the fact which stood out with the greatest prom- 
inence in the p-resent study was the increasing prominence 
of vocational work in these programs of study. In the 
schools organized for emphasizing special subjects, as agri- 
culture and home economics, the increasing emphasis on 
vocational work was especially noted. This was true in the 
agricultural schools of Mississippi and in the farm-life high 
schools of North Carolina, where adapting the schools to 
the "Smith-Hughes" Act had made their programs of study 
characteristically vocational. The question which this sit- 
uation brought was : Will college-entrance requirements be 
modified to meet these vocational courses, or will these stu- 
dents be shut out of college work, except in those colleges for 
which their work fits them? Another question was: Will 
the students from these schools want more vocational ivork 
in college? Or, since, for the most part, these vocational 
schools serve a rural population, was it sound educational 
policy to say to the students of these vocational schools : 
"Your fathers are, for the most part, farmers and artisans. 
These are your interests. The program of study which you 
will pursue will not prepare you to enter colleges of medi- 
cine, law' theology, teaching, or the colleges of liberal arts 
and sciences ; but they are such as are related to the things 
around you and in which you should be most interested. If 
you want to go to college after you have completed these 
programs, you will work in the line for which these prepare 
you." Will the patrons of these schools approve these poli- 
cies? 

In regard to the first question, all that can be said is that, 
in general, most of the colleges of the universities and col- 
leges have not so modified their entrance requirements that 
entrance to them with fifty per cent of the credits presented, 
vocational ones, would be possible. It is true that some uni- 
versities now admit on fifteen units of high-school work, 
but this admission is to the university, and does not mean 
that colleges within the university will admit any students 



142 The Administration of 

whose entrance credits do not satisfy its entrance require- 
ments; rather, it means that in the universities there are 
sufficient variations in requirements to take care of the per- 
mutations and combinations of credits which may be of- 
fered. The history of American colleges shows too much 
conservatism to indicate that any very radical modifica- 
tions in their requirements for entrance will be made im- 
mediately. 

That graduates from vocational high schools will wish to 
continue this in their college work as their major has not 
been indicated by such objective evidence as can be pro- 
duced on the subject. A study of 125 graduates of voca- 
tional curricula of Illinois high schools and 125 nonvoca- 
tional ones was made with especial reference to the extent 
the vocational students would elect vocational work as a 
continued major and as to the character of their college 
scholarship. (High School and Class Management, Hollis- 
ter, p. 203, data compiled by J. J. Didcoct.) There was no 
evidence to indicate that these students elected vocational 
work to a greater extent than did those of nonvocational 
curricula in high-school work, and their scholarship showed 
more of lowering than did those from the nonvocational. 
While this evidence is far from conclusive, it is sufficient to 
raise a number of questions in this regard. 

As to whether the patrons of public high schools will sanc- 
tion these policies, it is interesting to note a statement made 
by Hollister about three years ago. (Ibid., p. 201.) "In 
the light of our past history and present tendencies as to 
national progress," he says, "it is not likely the people who 
have in their keeping the interests of posterity through leg- 
islation . . . will ever permit such an ideal to be real- 
ized." Facts as facts are: A number of those county high 
schools have done this same thing. Whether it is because 
of the subsidy attached to the vocational course, which will 
pay at least a portion of the costs, or whether the action has 
been based on a sincere demand for greater recognition of 
vocational work, cannot alter the facts in the case. High- 
school programs of study have been much altered to meet 
the "Smith-Hughes" requirements. 

In the programs of studies discussed there are two gen- 
eral types — the one having parallel curricula and the one 
which has a number of required and a number of elective 
courses without having a definitely set-out curricula. The 
schools seemed about equally divided between these two 
plans. The latter plan, according to Monroe (Monroe, 
Principles of Secondary Education, p. 216), represents the 
later development. The first plan was developed to modify 



County High Schools in the South 143 

the classical curriculum of the "New England" type of high 
school, while this last-named plan came as the most liberal 
of elective plans and is what the same writer calls the "Far 
West" type. Administratively, its full value can only be 
realized when there is a sufficient number of teachers, ade- 
quate physical equipment, and other administrative provi- 
sions, so that there will not be too many required subjects. 
The question that must come in a small school, with a few 
teachers and such a plan, is: Will not the necessity for re- 
stricting free election cause this plan to be only nominally 
the one pursued by the school ? 



CHAPTER TEN 

Conclusions Based on the Study op the County as a 

Unit of Administration in Secondary 

Education in the South 

Some Conclusions Relative to Units of Administratioyi 

The legal provisions for different administrative units of 
secondary education showed that units in school adminis- 
tration in their organization usually corresponded to exist- 
ing units of civil administration In certain localities of 
the Middle West, as in Illinois, there was found a unit which 
seemed to rather ignore existing civil units and to develop 
around a center, which was the center of certain other ac- 
tivities. This same unit was observed in a number of the 
Southern States, developing within the county systems. An 
interesting problem is presented in the possibilities of this 
unit as a future unit of administration, but it lies outside 
this discussion. If the real causes for the one are the real 
causes for the other, then the causes which develop units of 
civil administration may be sought as the reasons for the 
development of educational units. Authorities on the de- 
velopment of governments differ in the reasons which they 
assign for the development of different units. Woodrow Wil- 
son, in his "The State," places the emphasis on geography ; 
Bryce, in his ''American Commonwealth," thinks that the 
habits which different peoples brought with them, with per- 
haps some racial differences, are largely responsible. Tak- 
ing both of these causes, it seems that if the chief causes for 
the devolpment of civil units are the causes for the develop- 
ment of educational ones, then the causes are geography 
and whatever racial or acquired habits a people may have 
developed peculiar to themselves. 

Another reason which seems somewhat plausible is that 
the existence of the administrative machinery of the civil 
units offered a strong inducement for the development of 
the same, rather than the working out of a new system of 
administration. To extend the existing administrative ma- 
chinery to include an additional function is manifestly sim- 
pler than to build the machinery necessary for the estab- 
lishment of a new unit. Whichever may be the real cause 
for the development of these different units in different sec- 
tions, the conclusions which these facts seem to justify may 
be stated thus : The unit of educational administration 
which has been most often adopted and ivhich has seemed to 



County High Schools in the South 145 

be best adapted to any section is the one corresponding ad- 
ministratively most closely to the unit already developed in 
civil administration. 

The County as a Unit of Administration in Secondary 
Education 

The sources on government, civil and educational, which 
were examined seemed to agree that there were two main 
benefits derived from the county as a unit in administra- 
tion. They were : First, the county was a step toward the 
centralization of administrative authority. In this respect 
it was superior to the "town," township, community, or 
district unit. Second, a consideration of the characteris- 
tics of the population and of industries, as quoted by these 
same authorities, indicated that the county was suited to an 
agricultural population, particularly in a region of large 
farms. It seemed adapted to most sparsely settled regions. 
Some possible shortcomings were indicated in the following 
discussions : 

Maintenance of County High Schools 

In the maintenance of county high schools the facts indi- 
cated inequality of effort on the part of the different coun- 
ties, even allowing for widely varying abilities, with corre- 
sponding lack of adequate provisions to meet the varying 
demands of the different counties. This very wide varia- 
tion was due, no doubt, in part, to the different needs and 
the different abilities existing among them. However, be- 
low a certain minimum it may reasonably be assumed to 
result from lack of local effort. The facts on maintenance 
which have been gathered do not show that the counties of 
the systems studied were always required to make a uni- 
form minimum effort before profiting from state aid. In 
fact, a number of instances showed a total, or an almost 
total, lack of local effort in this direction. The unit of ap- 
portionment of state funds for maintenance universally 
found in this study was the school population unit. It 
placed no premium on regular school attendance, length of 
term, or the number of teachers employed. In these re- 
spects it was deemed bad, if universal prevalence means 
that the system employing it is handicapped in securing the 
enforcement of compulsory attendance, longer terms, and a 
maximum number of teachers. It was believed that the 
systems studied were not making the best use they could 
make of the apportionment of state funds in securing a 
maximum of local effort and a desirable condition in regard 
to these other characteristics named, and that while the 



146 The Administration of 

county had in many cases caused richer districts to con- 
tribute to poorer ones, they have left untouched the prob- 
lem of inequality of opportunities among the counties. 

Distribution and Administration of County High Schools 

In a majority of the systems of county high schools the 
basis of approval as ''first class" was whether the high 
school had or had not a four-year program of studies. 
This was sometimes set out by law as the basis for that 
classification. Within some of the same systems, however, 
almost as many three-year schools per county as four-year 
ones were found. A number of two-year schools are also 
found. Where the basis of approval was a factor in the 
distribution of state funds, it seemed that so much empha- 
sis placed on the years taught might result in a correspond- 
ing lack of emphasis on other and perhaps more vital phases 
of the work. It was believed that the frequent occurrence 
of these schools, with programs covering a shorter number 
of years, indicated the need in county systems of a school 
of nine grades instead of eleven or of ten instead of twelve 
in case the four-year high school is built upon the eight ele- 
mentary grades. 

State supervision, with perhaps two exceptions, was sim- 
ply inspection. In at least two instances there was an at- 
tempt on a state-wide basis to modify inspection and to 
make it more nearly supervision. This first-named situ- 
ation placed the burden of what supervision is done on the 
local unit. 

In most county high-school systems there were two bases 
for accrediting. In some cases the law set forth that only 
the standards set by the State Department of Education 
should be considered bases for accrediting. Often, how- 
ever, state funds were apportioned by one set of stand- 
ards, while university and college entrance was determined 
by another. 

Physical Equipment of County High Schools 

The valuation of physical equipment in buildings and 
sites, in library, and in laboratory equipment showed a 
very wide range of variations. It certainly would not be 
desirable to have the different phases of equipment equal in 
value among the different high schools. This situation 
would probably mean as great inequality as now exists, but 
there are certain minimum values below which equipment 
should not be permitted to go. It seemed impossible to 
think of the building and site of a county high school valued 



County High Schools in the South . 147 

at $500 or less. Home economics equipment valued at $1.50 
meant no equipment in this field. Library equipment val- 
ued at less than it takes to provide a student with textbooks 
was a very small equipment. When one-fourth of the 
schools in a system had library equipment valued at less 
than it takes to buy an International Encyclopedia, it 
seemed that the pupils in these schools were faring badly 
in this respect. Instances where these conditions were 
found were cited in the chapter on equipment. The facts 
found indicated too many schools below what might arbi- 
trarily be termed a "safe minimum" to conclude that county 
high schools were supplying anything like equal educational 
opportunity, so far as physical equipment was a factor to 
the students of a system. 

Student Population of County High Schools 

The first thing usually considered when student popula- 
tion is studied is the amount of elimination. On the whole, 
the situation in these county high schools, as it was indi- 
cated by the facts collected, were not strikingly different 
from elimination in the high schools in the country at large, 
as it had been measured in the scientific studies which have 
been made. In some of the systems the situation seemed 
slightly worse, in others slightly better, than in the country 
at large. The conclusion that seemed warranted was, the 
county as the unit of secondary educational administration 
had not succeeded in materially reducing the elimination. 
The weak holding power of the high schools is considered 
one of its greatest weaknesses. There is much difference 
of opinion among experts as to what constitute causes and 
as to what are the remedies for it, but all seem agreed as to 
the deplorable character and extent of this weakness. An- 
other, but subordinate, fact noted from the study of popu- 
lation was that there was a very wide range in the number 
of pupils in the different schools of the different systems. 
Some have so small a number of students that the conclu- 
sion seems almost warranted that there will not be enough 
teachers and enough variation of courses offered to provide 
other than very limited opportunities. 

Teachers in County High Schools 

Salaries in three state systems showed teachers in one 
system getting almost four times as much as those in an- 
other. Some county high-school principals got more than 
eight times as much as some county high-school teachers. 
Some county high-school teachers get less than a dollar a 



148 The Administration of 

day, considering twelve months as a year and prorating 
their salary. 

Legally required qualifications showed much variation in 
the things required for certification. In all systems consid- 
ered there were two routes — diploma and examination. In 
no two states were the examination requirements the same. 
In only one state had it been definitely stated that the de- 
gree was to be given decided preference over the examina- 
tion. 

It seemed that there has not been enough required of 
county high-school teachers as a minimum requirement in 
training or in certification, nor was there sufficient mini- 
mum salary guarantee or minimum number of teachers re- 
quired to insure the best conditions. The facts regarding 
the distribution of teachers is, some systems showed a num- 
ber of one-teacher and two-teacher high schools among the 
approved county high schools. This must have meant that 
there was not a minimum number of teachers required be- 
fore the school could be approved. This was not in keeping 
with the practice in the North Central Association, or of 
other similar standardizing agencies, where under other 
units than the county a system of secondary standards have 
been worked out. Measured by these standards, it would 
be bad. 

Facts regarding the qualifications of teachers in several 
systems showed a number of teachers in every one of the 
systems who were only normal-school graduates and a num- 
ber who had neither degree nor diploma. This meant there 
was no required minimum qualification, or, if there was, it 
was not enforced. This meant that children of one school 
would have teachers of one degree of training, while those 
of another school might have teachers of quite another de- 
gree. 

Programs of Study — County High Schools 

There were programs of study considered in several in- 
stances that prepared the student taking them for entrance 
only into polytechnic schools or into colleges of agricul- 
ture. There were also instances where there were no cur- 
ricula which provided the work necessary for entrance into 
the colleges of medicine, law, or arts and sciences, as those 
entrance requirements are now administered. It could, 
perhaps, in all probability, be shown that a majority of the 
students in these schools would enter the occupations of 
their parents. It could with justice, perhaps, be said that 
to neglect the small per cent who will go to these other col- 
leges named is less of an injustice than has been the neglect 
of those who did not intend to enter college by the tradi- 



County High Schools in the South 149 

tional college-entrance program. However, there seemed 
no sound justification for either extreme. The facts show 
that a number of these county high schools have programs 
of study which do not offer a wide choice of curricula to the 
student populations which they serve. They were offering 
superior advantages, no doubt, in certain specific lines of 
training; but they were not offering very many opportuni- 
ties of choice. In the cases mentioned, many times at least, 
there were other high schools in the county to which the 
student who wished college preparation could go. This 
study was concerned, however, only with county high 
schools ; and as to their programs of study providing that 
variety of choice which was thought desirable, in several 
instances they did not do so. 

These various conclusions set forth as theses are as fol- 
lows: 

1. The unit of civil administration and the unit of school 
administration usually correspond. 

2. Two characteristics of the county unit which the 
sources consulted indorsed strongly were: 

(a) It is a step toward the centralization of administra- 
tive authority. 

(b) It seems especially adapted to an agricultural popu- 
lation that is not densely settled. 

3. There was not found in all these county high schools 
certain minimum requirements in the way of the amount 
of local effort required to participate in special state aids 
for creating or maintaining county high schools. 

4. In administration and in distribution these conclusions 
were indicated : 

(a) The need of a new type of approved high school, 
whose program of studies requires fewer years, is indicated. 

(b) There should be uniform standards of accrediting 
employed. 

5. The high schools described in detail in Chapter Five 
illustrated what the facts in Chapter Four indicate : There 
is a development in rural high schools in the South of suffi- 
cient prominence to merit extended study. 

6. Minimum requirements in physical equipment, strictly 
enforced, seem necessary to remedy the present extreme 
range of variation in the value of the physical equipment in 
county high schools. 

7. The holding power of county high schools must be im- 
proved before they can be said to materially improve condi- 
tions as they relate to elimination. 

8. There should be certain minimum requirements for 



150 The Administration of 

teachers' qualifications, strictly carried out. Salaries should 
be such as to make this practicable. 

9. Either college-entrance requirements should be so mod- 
ified that they will admit the graduates of those county high 
schools which have become in effect vocational schools, or 
programs of study should be provided which v/ould include 
curricula to prepare for college entrance. 

10. It seems doubtful, then, if the county, as a unit of ad- 
ministration in secondary education, has equalized suffi- 
ciently educational opportunities by controlling conditions 
of maintenance, distribution of schools, administrative or- 
ganizations, physical equipment, student population, teach- 
ing force, and programs of study to justify advocating it 
as a unit of preeminent ability in this direction over other 
units which are elsewhere employed. 

Conclusion 

The major problem which this dissertation raises is: 
Does the county, as a unit of administration in secondary 
education, possess certain characteristics which render it 
perhaps a desirable unit through which to administer the 
high schools of the country? In attempting to solve this 
problem, the facts concerning county high schools and their 
various phases of administration have been sought. To 
illustrate, the facts concerning physical equipment were 
sought in an attempt to see how nearly the distribution of 
equipment brought real educational opportunities to those 
it served. The same purpose runs throughout the various 
phases of administration studied. It remains to attempt 
the answer to this major question as these facts seem to in- 
dicate it. 

It must not be considered a condemnation of county high 
schools that the facts found indicated in some schools a 
great many things undone which in many of the same 
schools are done. Chapter Five illustrates a number of 
very successful county high schools. There were dozens of 
others. County high schools have done much toward bring- 
ing secondary education to rural communities. The move- 
ment is both an interesting and a notable one. The section 
which they serve has been greatly advanced by their serv- 
ice. They are chiefly responsible for the difference be- 
tween the conditions described by Snyder and the ones found 
at present. But the facts remain that in too large a number 
of instances there is a paucity of equipment and unsatisfac- 
tory conditions in other phases of administration, which, 
when the system is considered, leaves a good many things 
to be desired. In an attempt to answer the chief question, 



County High Schools in the South 151 

it has, perhaps, seemed that these points were stressed and 
some facts which relate to the most successful cases neg- 
lected. If this is true, it is because these facts seemed to 
answer the question raised. 

The statement that the South is the most favorable sec- 
tion of the country for the development and successful ap- 
plication of the county as a unit of administration agrees 
with the views held by the sources which have been quoted. 
The facts which have been gathered attempt to show to 
what extent it has succeeded as a unit of secondary educa- 
tional administration. Many of the facts mentioned un- 
favorably are, doubtless, not due to the unit; but these in 
varying degrees would be encountered in any section and 
where other conditions are perhaps less favorable. 

In brief, the county high school has contributed to the 
South a rural high-school movement of very great impor- 
tance. It has done much toward bringing free secondary 
education to the children of Southern counties, and it has 
been an effort — a most praiseworthy one — to equalize edu- 
cational opportunities for the children of this section. The 
facts concerning these schools as they have been gathered 
show that equal opportunities, so far as physical equipment, 
teachers, and program of studies go, have not been ade- 
quately provided, that the proper amount of local effort has 
not been secured, and that a large enough number of chil- 
dren have not been enrolled and held by these systems. 

If on the basis of these facts a definite answer to the ma- 
jor question is attempted, it would have to appear negative. 
This is followed by the question: Can any unit of school 
administration be devised which will equalize the chances 
provided for the children of different sections to secure an 
education, or must the problem be solved in another way — 
namely, that of convincing the portions of the public con- 
cerned of the necessity of providing more in the way of 
opportunities? If so, the remedy would seem to lie in 
school publicity. 



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H 113 80 i 







0^ APR 80 

!§^ N. MANCHESTER, 



